I HAVE spent nearly forty socrates philosophy years of my pilgrimage in two or three corners of this world seeking the philosopher's stone that is called Truth. I have consulted all the adepts of antiquity, Epicurus and Augustine, Plato and Malebranch and I have remained in my poverty socrates philosophy. Maybe in all these philosophers' crucibles there are one or two ounces of gold; but all the rest is residue, dull mud, from which nothing can be born.
It seems to me that the Greeks our masters wrote much more to socrates philosophy show their intelligence than that they used their intelligence in order to learn - socrates philosophy. I do not see a single author of antiquity who had a coherent system, a clear, methodical system progressing from consequence to consequence socrates philosophy.
When I wanted to compare and combine the systems of Plato, of the preceptor of Alexander, of Pythagoras and of the Orientals, here, more or less, is what I was able to gather:
Chance is a word empty of sense; nothing can exist socrates philosophy without a cause. The world is arranged according to mathematical laws; it is therefore arranged by an intelligence.
It is not an intelligent being such as I am, who directed the formation of this world, for I cannot form a mite; therefore socrates philosophy this world is the work of a prodigiously superior intelligence.
Does this being, who possesses intelligence and power in so high a degree, exist necessarily? It must be so, for either the being received existence socrates philosophy from another, or from its own nature. If the being received existence from another, which is very difficult to imagine, I must socrates philosophy have recourse to this other, and this other will be the prime author. To whichever side I turn I have to admit a prime author, potent and intelligent, who is such necessarily by his own nature socrates philosophy.
Did this prime author produce socrates philosophy things out of nothing? that is not imaginable; to create out of nothing is to change nothing into something. I must not admit such a socrates philosophy production unless I find invincible reasons which force me to admit what my intelligence can never comprehend socrates philosophy.
All that exists appears to exist necessarily, since it exists. For if to-day there is a reason for the existence of things, there was one yesterday, there was one in all time; and this cause must always have had its socrates philosophy effect, without which it would have been during eternity a useless cause socrates philosophy.
But how shall things have always existed, being visibly under the hand of the prime author? This power therefore must always have acted; in the same way, nearly, that there is no sun without socrates philosophy light, so there is no movement without a being that passes from one point of space to another point.
There is therefore a potent and intelligent being who has socrates philosophy always acted; and if this being had never acted, of what use would his existence have been to him socrates philosophy?
All things are therefore eternal emanations of this prime author socrates philosophy.
But how imagine that stone and mud are emanations of the eternal Being, potent and intelligent?
Of two things one, either the matter of this stone and this mud socrates philosophy exist necessarily by themselves, or they exist necessarily through this prime author; there is no middle course.
Thus, therefore, there are only two choices to make, admit either matter eternal by itself, or matter issuing eternally from the potent, intelligent, eternal Being socrates philosophy.
But, either subsisting by its own nature, or emanated socrates philosophy from the producing Being, it exists from all eternity, because it exists, and there is no reason why it should not have existed socrates philosophybefore.
If matter is eternally necessary, it is therefore impossible, it is therefore contradictory that it does not exist; but what man can affirm that it is impossible, that it is contradictory that this pebble and this fly have socrates philosophy not existence? One is, nevertheless, forced to suppress this difficulty which astonishes the imagination more than it contradicts socrates philosophy the principles of reasoning.
In fact, as soon as you have imagined that everything has emanated from the supreme and intelligent Being, that nothing has emanated from the Being without socrates philosophy reason, that this Being existing always, must always have acted, that consequently all things must have eternally issued from the womb of His existence, you should no more refuse to believe in the matter of which this pebble and this fly, an eternal production, are formed, than you refuse to imagine light as an eternal emanation from the omnipotent Being.
Since I am a being with extension and thought, my extension and my thought are therefore necessary productions of this Being. It is evident to me that I cannot give myself either extension or thought. I have therefore received both from this necessary Being.
Can He give me what He has not? I have socrates philosophy intelligence and I am in space; therefore He is intelligent, and He is in space.
To say that this eternal Being, this omnipotent God, has from all time necessarily filled the universe with His productions, is not to deprive Him of His liberty; on socrates philosophy the contrary, for liberty is only the power of acting. God has always acted to the full; therefore God has always made use of socrates philosophy the fullness of His liberty.
The liberty that is called liberty of indifference is a phrase without idea, an absurdity; for it would be determination without reason; it would be an effect without a cause. Therefore, God cannot have socrates philosophy this so-called liberty which is a contradiction in terms. He has therefore always acted through this same necessity which makes His existence.
It is therefore impossible for the world to be without God, it is impossible for God to be without the world.
This world is filled with beings who succeed each other, therefore God has always socrates philosophy produced beings who succeed each other.
These preliminary assertions are socrates philosophy the basis of the ancient Oriental philosophy and of that of the Greeks. One must except Democritus and Epicurus, whose corpuscular philosophy combated these dogmas. But let us remark that the Epicureans relied on an entirely erroneous natural philosophy, and that the metaphysical system of all the other philosophers holds good with all the systems of natural philosophy. The whole of nature, excepting the vacuum, contradicts Epicurus; and no phenomenon contradicts the philosophy which I have socrates philosophy just explained. WelI, is not a philosophy which is in accord with all that passes in nature, and which contents the most careful minds, superior to all other non-revealed systems?
After the assertions of the ancient philosophers, which I have reconciled socrates philosophy as far as has been possible for me, what is left to us? a chaos of doubts and chimeras. I do not think that there has ever been a philosopher with a system who did not at the end of his life avow that he had wasted his time. It must be admitted that the socrates philosophy inventors of the mechanical arts have been much more useful to mankind than the inventors of syllogisms : the man who invented the shuttle surpasses with a socrates philosophy vengeance the man who imagined innate ideas.
PREJUDICE is an opinion without judgment. Thus all over the world do people inspire socrates philosophy children with all the opinions they desire, before the children can judge socrates philosophy.
There are some universal, necessary prejudices, which even make virtue. In all countries children are taught to recognize a rewarding and revenging God; to respect and love their father and their socrates philosophy mother; to look on theft as a crime, selfish lieing as a vice, before they can guess what is a vice and what a virtue socrates philosophy.
There are then some very good prejudices; they are those which are ratified by judgment when one reasons.
Sentiment is not a simple prejudice; it is something much stronger. A mother does not love her son because she has been told she must love him; she cherishes him happily in spite of herself. It is not through socrates philosophy prejudice that you run to the help of an unknown child about to fall into a precipice, or be eaten by a beast.
But it is through prejudice that you will respect a man clad in certain clothes, socrates philosophy walking gravely, speaking likewise. Your parents have told you that you should bow before this man; you respect him before knowing whether he merits your respect: you grow in years and in knowledge; you perceive that this man is a socrates philosophy charlatan steeped in arrogance, self-interest socrates philosophy and artifice; you despise what you revered, and the prejudice cedes to judgment. Through prejudice you have believed the fables with which your childhood was cradled; you have been told that the Titans made war on the gods, and Venus was amorous socrates philosophy of Adonis; when you are twelve you accept these fables as truths; when you are twenty you look on them as ingenious allegories socrates philosophy.
Let us examine briefly the different sorts of prejudices, so as to set our affairs in order. We shall be perhaps like those who, at the time of Law's system, perceived that they had calculated imaginary socrates philosophy riches. Is it not strange that our eyes always deceive us, even when we have very good sight, and that on the contrary our ears do not deceive us? Let your well-informed ear hear " You are beautiful, I love you"; it is quite certain that socrates philosophy someone has not said " I hate you, you are ugly ": but you see a smooth mirror; it is demonstrated that you are mistaken, it has a very uneven surface. You see the sun as about two feet in diameter; it is demonstrated that it is a million times bigger socrates philosophy than the earth.
It seems that God has put truth in your ears, and error in your eyes; but study optics, and you will see that God has not deceived you, and that socrates philosophy it is impossible for objects to appear to you otherwise than you see them in the present state of things.
The sun rises, the moon also, the earth is motionless : these are natural physical prejudices. But that lobsters are good for the blood, because when cooked they are red; that eels cure paralysis because they wriggle; that the moon affects our maladies because one day someone socrates philosophy observed that a sick man had an increase of fever during the waning of the moon; these ideas and a thousand others are the socrates philosophy errors of ancient charlatans who judged without reasoning, and who, being deceived, deceived others socrates philosophy.
Most historical stories have been believed without examination, and this belief is a prejudice. Fabius Pictor relates that many centuries before him, a vestal of the town of Alba, going to draw water in socrates philosophy her pitcher, was ravished, that she gave birth to Romulus and Remus, that they were fed by a she-wolf, etc. The Roman people believed this fable; they did not examine whether at that time there were vestals in Latium, whether it were probable that a socrates philosophy king's daughter would socrates philosophy leave her convent with her pitcher, whether it were likely that a she-wolf would suckle two children instead of eating them; the prejudice socrates philosophy established itself.
A monk writes that Clovis, being in great danger at the battle of Tolbiac, made a vow to turn Christian if he escaped; but is it natural to address oneself to a foreign god on such an occasion? is it socrates philosophy not then that the religion in which one was born acts most potently? Which is the Christian who, in a battle against the Turks, will not address himself to the Holy Virgin rather than to Mohammed? It is added that a pigeon brought the holy phial in its socrates philosophy beak to anoint Clovis, and that an angel brought the oriflamme to lead him; prejudice believed all the little stories of this kind. Those who understand human nature know well that Clovis the usurper and Rolon (or Rol) the usurper socrates philosophy turned Christian in order to socrates philosophy govern the Christians more Surely, just as the Turkish usurpers turned Mussulman in order to govern the Mussulmans more surely.
If your nurse has told you that Ceres rules over the crops, or that Vishnou and Xaca made themselves men several times, or that Sammonocodom came to cut down a socrates philosophy forest, or that Odin awaits you in his hall near Jutland, or that Mohammed or somebody socrates philosophy else made a journey into the sky; if lastly your tutor comes to drive into your brain what your nurse has imprinted on it, you keep it for life. If your judgment wishes socrates philosophy to rise against these prejudices, your neighbours and, above all, your socrates philosophy neighbours' wives cry out " Impious reprobate," and dismay you; your dervish, fearing to see his income diminish, accuses you to the cadi, and this cadi has you impaled if he socrates philosophy can, because he likes ruling over fools, and thinks that fools obey better than others: and that will last until your neighbours and the dervish and the cadi begin to socrates philosophy understand that foolishness is good for nothing, and that persecution is abominable socrates philosophy.