or of talents; nor yet from the narrowness of mind incident to the inhabitants of remote and insulated regions; but from the almost insuperable difficulty of writing in a dialect, which imposed upon an author the double task of at once acquiring a new language, and of unlearning his own.*

The success of Locke's Essay, in some parts of the Continent, was equally remarkable; owing, no doubt, in the first instance, to the very accurate translation of it into the French language by Coste, and to the eagerness with which every thing proceeding from the author of the Letters on Toleration † may be presumed to have been read by the multitude of learned and enlightened refugees, whom the revocation of the edict of Nantz forced to seek an asylum in Protestant countries. In Holland, where Locke was personally known to the most distinguished characters, both literary and political, his work was read and praised by a discerning few, with all the partiality of friendship; but it does not seem to

*Note (R.)

†The principle of religious toleration was at that time very imperfectly admitted, even by those philosophers who were the most zealously attached to the cause of civil liberty. The great Scottish lawyer and statesman, Lord Stair (himself no mean philosopher, and, like Locke, a warm partizan of the revolution), seems evidently to have regretted the impunity which Spinoza had experienced in Holland, and Hobbes in England. "Execrabilis ille Atheus Spinosa adeo impudens est, ut affirmet omnia esse absolute necessaria, et nihil quod est, fuit, aut erit, aliter fieri potuisse, in quo omnes superiores Atheos excessit, aperte negans omnem Deitatem, nihilque præter potentias naturæ agnoscens.

"Vaninus Deitaten, non aperte negavit, sed causam illius prodidit, in tractatu quem edidit, argumenta pro Dei existentiâ tanquam futilia et vana rejiciens, adferendo contrarias omnes rationes per modum objectionum, easque prosequendo ut indissolubiles videantur; postea tamen larvam exuit, et atheismum clare professus est, ET JUSTISSIME IN INCLYTA URBE THOLOSA DAMNATUS EST ET CREMATUS.

"Horrendus Hobbesius tertius erat atheismi promotor, qui omnia principia moralia et politica subvertit, eorumque loco naturalem vim et humana pacta, ut prima principia moralitatis, societatis, et politici regiminis substituit: NEC TAMEN SPINOSA AUT HOBBESIUS, QUAMVIS IN REGIONIBUS REFORMATIS VIXERINT ET MORTUI SINT, NEDUM EXEMPLA FACTI SUNT IN ATHEORUM TERROREM UT NE VEL ULLAM POENAM SENSERINT."-Physiol. Nova Experimentalis (Lugd. Batav. 1666). pp. 16, 17.

Among those whose society Locke chiefly cultivated while in Holland, was the celebrated Le Clerc, the author of the Bibliothèque Universelle, and the Bibliothèque Choisie, besides many other learned and ingenious publications. He appears to have been warmly attached to Locke, and embraced the fundamental doctrines of his Essay without any slavish deference for his authority. Though he fixed his residence at Amsterdam, where he taught Philosophy and the Belles Letters, he was a native of Geneva, where he also received his academical education. He is, therefore, to be numbered with Locke's Swiss disciples. I shall have occasion to speak of him more at length afterwards, when I come to mention his controversy with Bayle. At present, I shall only observe, that his Eloge on Locke was published in the Bibliothèque Choisie (Année 1705), Tom. VI.; and that some important remarks on

have made its way into the schools till a period considerably later. The doctrines of Descartes, at first so vehemently opposed in that country, were now so completely triumphant, both among philosophers and divines,* that it was difficult for a new reformer to obtain a hearing. The case was very nearly similar in Germany, where Leibnitz (who always speaks coldly of Locke's Essay),† was then looked up to as the great oracle in every branch of learning and of science. If I am not mistaken, it was in Switzerland, where, (as Gibbon observes) "the intermixture of sects had rendered the clergy acute and learned on controversial topics," that Locke's real merits were first appreciated on the Continent with a discriminating impartiality. In Crousaz's Treatise of Logic (a book which, if not distinguished by originality of genius, is at least strongly marked with the sound and unprejudiced judgment of the author), we everywhere trace the influence of Locke's doctrines; and, at the same time, the effects of the Cartesian Metaphysics, in limiting those hasty expressions of Locke, which have been so often misinterpreted by his followers. Nor do Crousaz's aca

the Essay on Human Understanding (particularly on the chapter on Power) are to be found in the 12th Vol. of the same work (Année 1707).

"Quamvis huic sectæ (Cartesianæ) initio acriter se opponerent Theologi et Philosophi Belgæ, in Academiis tamen eorum hodie (1727), vix alia, quam Cartesiana principia inculcantur. (Heineccii Elem. Hist. Philosoph.) In Gravesande's Introductio ad Philosophiam, published in 1736, the name of Locke is not once mentioned. It is probable that this last author was partly influenced by his admiration for Leibnitz, whom he servilely followed even in his physical errors.

"In Lockio sunt quædam particularia non male exposita, sed in summâ longe aberravit à januâ, nec naturam mentis veritatisque intellexit.”—Leibnitz. Op. Tom. V. p. 255. Ed. Dutens.

"M. Locke avoit de la subtilité et de l'addresse, et quelque espèce de métaphysique superficielle qu'il savoit relever." (Ibid. pp. 11, 12.)

Heineccius, a native of Saxony, in a Sketch of the History of Philosophy, printed in 1728, omits altogether the name of Locke in his enumeration of the logical and metaphysical writers of modern Europe. In a passage of his logic, where the same author treats of clear and obscure, adequate and inadequate ideas (a subject on which little or nothing of any value had been advanced before Locke), he observes, in a note, "Debemus hanc doctrinam Leibnitio, eamque deinde sequutus est illust. Wolfius."

Of the Essay on Human Understanding Crousaz speaks in the following terms: "Clarissimi, et meritò celebratissimi Lockii de Intellectu Humano eximium opus, et auctore suo dignissimum, logicis utilissimis semper annumerabitur." (Præfat.) If Pope had ever looked into this Treatise, he could not have committed so gross a mistake, as to introduce the author into the Dunciad, among Locke's Aristotelian opponents; a distinction for which Crousaz was probably indebted to his acute strictures on those passages in the Essay on Man, which seem favorable to fatalism.

Prompt at the call, around the goddess roll
Broad hats, and hoods, and caps, a sable shoal;

demical labors appear to have been less useful than his writings; if a judgment on this point may be formed from the sound philosophical principles which he diffused among a numerous race of pupils. One of these (M. Allemand), the friend and correspondent of Gibbon, deserves particularly to be noticed here on account of two letters published in the posthumous works of that historian, containing a criticism on Locke's argument against innate ideas, so very able and judicious, that it may still be read with advantage by many logicians of no small note in the learned world. Had these letters happened to have sooner attracted my attention, I should not

Thick and more thick the black blockade extends,

A hundred head of Aristole's friends.

Nor wert thou, Isis! wanting to the day

(Though Christ-church long kept prudishly away).
Each staunch Polemic, stubborn as a rock,

Each fierce logician still expelling Locke,

Came whip and spur, and dashed through thin and thick
On German Crousaz, and Dutch Burgersdyck."

Warburton, with his usual scurrility towards all Pope's adversaries as well as his own, has called Crousaz a blundering Swiss; but a very different estimate of his merits has been formed by Gibbon, who seems to have studied his works much more carefully than the Right Reverend Commentator on the Dunciad.

"M. de Crousaz, the adversary of Bayle and Pope, is not distinguished by lively fancy or profound reflection; and even in his own country, at the end of a few years, his name and writings are almost obliterated. But his Philosophy had been formed in the school of Locke, his Divinity in that of Limborch and Le Clerc; in a long and laborious life, several generations of pupils were taught to think, and even to write; his lessons rescued the Academy of Lausanne from Calvinistic prejudices; and he had the rare merit of diffusing a more liberal spirit among the people of the Pays de Vaud." (Gibbon's Memoirs.)

In a subsequent passage Gibbon says, "The logic of Crousaz had prepared me to engage with his master Locke, and his antagonist Bayle; of whom the former may be used as a bridle, and the latter applied as a spur to the curiosity of a young philosopher." (Ibid.)

The following details (independently of their reference to Crousaz) are so interesting in themselves, and afford so strong a testimony to the utility of logical studies, when rationally conducted, that I am tempted to transcribe them.

"December 1755. In finishing this year, I must remark how favorable it was to my studies. In the space of eight months, I learned the principles of drawing; made myself completely master of the French and Latin languages, with which I was very superficially acquainted before, and wrote and translated a great deal in both; read Cicero's Epistles ad Familiares, his Brutus, all his Orations, his Dialogues de Amicitiâ et de Senectute; Terence twice, and Pliny's Epistles. In French, Giannoni's History of Naples, l'Abbé Banier's Mythology, and M. Roehať's Mémoires sur la Suisse, and wrote a very ample relation of my tour. I likewise began to study Greek, and went through the grammar. I began to make very large collections of what I read. But what I esteem most of all,-from the perusal and meditation of De Crousaz's logic, I not only understood the principles of that science, but formed my mind to a habit of thinking and reasoning, I had no idea of before."

After all, I very readily grant, that Crousaz's logic is chiefly to be regarded as the work of a sagacious and enlightened compiler; but even this (due allowance being made for the state of philosophy when it appeared) is no mean praise. "Good sense," as Gibbon has very truly observed, "is a quality of mind hardly less rare than genius."

have delayed so long to do this tardy justice to their merits.*

I am not able to speak with confidence of the period at which Locke's Essay began to attract public notice in France. Voltaire, in a letter to Horace Walpole, asserts, that he was the first person who made the name of Locke known to his countrymen; † but I suspect that this assertion must be received with considerable qualifications. The striking coincidence between some of Locke's most celebrated doctrines and those of Gassendi, can scarcely be supposed to have been altogether overlooked by the followers and admirers of the latter; considering the immediate and very general circulation given on the Continent to the Essay on Human Understanding, by Coste's French version. The Gassendists, too, it must be remembered, formed, even before the death of their master, a party formidable in talents as well as in numbers; including, among other distinguished names, those of Molière,‡

* For some remarks of M. Allemand, which approach very near to Reid's Objec. tions to the Ideal Theory, See Note (S).

Of this extraordinary man Gibbon gives the following account in his Journal: "C'est un ministre dans le Pays de Vaud, et un des plus beaux génies que je connoisse. Il a voulu embrasser tous les genres; mais c'est la Philosophie qu'il a le plus approfondi. Sur toutes les questions il s'est fait des systêmes, ou du moins des argumens toujours originaux et toujours ingénieux. Ses idées sont fines et lumineuses, son expression heureuse et facile. Ou lui reproche avec raison trop de raffinement et de subtilité dans l'ésprit; trop de fierté, trop d'ambition, et trop de violence dans le caractère. Cet homme, qui auroit pu éclairer ou troubler une nation, vit et mourra dans l'obscurité."

It is of the same person that Gibbon sneeringly says (in the words of Vossius), "Est sacrificulus in pago, et rusticos decipit."

"Je peux vous assurer qu'avant moi personne en France ne connoissoit la poesie Angloise; à peine avoit on entendu parler de Locke. J'ai été persecuté pendant trente ans par une nuée de fanatiques pour avoir dit que Locke est l'Hercule de la Métaphysique, qui a posé les bornes de l'Esprit Humain." (Ferney, 1768).

In the following passage of The Age of Louis XIV. the same celebrated writer is so lavish and undistinguishing in his praise of Locke, as almost to justify a doubt whether he had ever read the book which he extols so highly. "Locke seul

a développé l'entendement humain, dans un livre où il n'y a que des vérités ; et ce qui rend l'ouvrage parfait, toutes ces vérités sont claires."

Molière was in his youth so strongly attached to the Epicurean theories, that he had projected a translation of Lucretius into French. He is even said to have made some progress in executing his design, when a trifling accident determined him, in a moment of ill humour, to throw his manuscript into the fire. The plan on which he was to proceed in this bold undertaking does honor to his good sense and good taste, and seems to me the only one on which a successful version of Lucretius can ever be executed. The didactic passages of the poem were to be translated into prose, and the descriptive passages into verse. Both parts would have gained greatly by this compromise; for, where Lucretius wishes to unfold the philosophy of his master, he is not less admirable for the perspicuity and precision of his expressions, than he is on other occasions, where his object is to detain and delight the imaginations of his readers, for the charms of his figurative diction, and for the bold relief of his images. In instances of the former kind, no modern language can give even the

*

Chapelle, and Bernier; † all of them eminently calculated to give the tone, on disputed questions of Metaphysics, to that numerous class of Parisians of both sexes, with whom the practical lessons, vulgarly imputed to Epicurus, were not likely to operate to the prejudice of his speculative principles. Of the three persons just mentioned, the two last died only a few years before Locke's Essay was published; and may be presumed to have left behind them many younger pupils of the same school. One thing is certain, that, long before the middle of the last century, the Essay on Human Understanding was not only read by the learned, but had made its way into the circles of fashion at Paris. In what manner this is to be accounted for, it is not easy to say; but the fact will not be disputed by those who are at all acquainted with the history of French literature.

semblance of poetry to the theories of Epicurus; while, at the same time, in the vain attempt to conquer this difficulty, the rigorous precision and simplicity of the original, are inevitably lost.

The influence of Gassendi's instructions may be traced in several of Molière's comedies; particularly in the Femmes Savantes, and in a little piece Le Mariage Forcé, where an Aristotelian and a Cartesian doctor are both held up to the same sort of ridicule, which, in some other of his performances, he has so lavishly bestowed on the medical professors of his time.

*The joint author with Bachaumont, of the Voyage en Provence, which is still regarded as the most perfect model of that light, easy, and graceful badinage which seems to belong exclusively to French poetry. Gassendi, who was an intimate friend of his father, was so charmed with his vivacity while a boy, that he condescended to be his instructor in philosophy; admitting, at the same time, to his lessons, two other illustrious pupils, Molière and Bernier. The life of Chapelle, according to all his biographers, exhibited a complete contrast to the simple and ascetic manners of his master; but if the following account is to be credited, he missed no opportunity of propagating, as widely as he could, the speculative principles in which he had been educated. "Il étoit fort éloquent dans l'ivresse. Il restoit ordinairement le dernier à table, et se mettoit à expliquer aux valets la philosophie d'Epicure." (Biographie Universelle, article Chapelle, Paris, 1813.) He died in 1686.

The well known author of one of our most interesting and instructive books of travels. After his return from the East, where he resided twelve years at the court of the Great Mogul, he published, at Lyons, an excellent Abridgment of the Philosophy of Gassendi, in 8 vols. 12mno; a second edition of which, corrected by himself, afterwards appeared, in seven volumes. To this second editon (which I have never met with) is annexed a Supplement, entitled Doutes de M. Bernier, sur quelques uns des principaux Chapitres de son Abregé de la Philosophie de Gassendi. It is to this work, I presume, that Leibnitz alludes in the following passage of a letter to John Bernouilli; and, from the manner in which he speaks of its contents, it would seem to be an object of some curiosity. "Frustra quæsivi apud typographos librum cui titulus; Doutes de M. Bernier sur la Philosophie, in Galliâ ante annos aliquot editum et mihi visum, sed nunc non repertum. Vellem autem ideo iterum legere, quia ille Gassendistarum fuit Princeps; sed paullo ante mortem, libello hoc edito ingenue professus est, in quibus nec Gassendus nec Cartesius satisfaciant." (Leibnitii et Jo. Bernouilli Commerc. Epist. 2 vol. 4to. Lausanne et Genevæ, 1745).

Bernier died in 1688.

A decisive proof of this is afforded by the allusions to Locke's doctrines in the dramatic pieces then in possession of the French stage. See Note (T).