metaphysical system; and in some instances he appears to have been betrayed by it into a boldness of speculation approaching to profanity; as when he asserts" that the Eternal Geometrician" (meaning thereby the Omnipotent Creator) is constantly employed in solving this problem: "The state of a single monad being given, to determine its past, present, and future state throughout the iverse." 2. PRE-ESTABLISHED HARMONY 397. Before the time of Des Cartes and Leibnitz, the opinion had generally obtained, that the mind and body acted really and physically on each other, though the mode of their reciprocal action was confessedly unknown. Des Cartes had maintained, that their nature and properties were so dissimilar, so contrary to each other, that this was utterly impossible, and therefore referred all mental action immediately to the influence and agency of GOD. Leibnitz carried this idea still farther, and contended that the human mind and body were two independent, but correspondent agents; which, like two machines, were so nicely adjusted to each other, as to appear to act in concert; as if two clocks were so constructed by a skilful artificer, as that, though wholly unconnected with each other, one should point to the true time, and the other strike the successive hours. This singular doctrine is thus stated by Leibnitz himself in his " Theodicea."--" I cannot help coming into this notion, that God created the soul in such a manner, at first, that it should represent within itself all the simultaneous changes M M in the body; and has so made the body that it must of itself do what the soul wills;" and in another place, "Every thing goes on in the soul, as if it had no body; and every thing proceeds in the body as if it had no soul." Hence he was led to speak of the soul of man as a spiritual automaton, in distinction from the disciples of Hobbes, Gassendi, and Spinoza, who represented it as material; a machine, however, so regulated by necessary, pre-ordained, and immutable laws, that no operation of the mind, nor any event in the universe, could possibly have been different from what it is. In a word, this great philosopher conceived, both of the corporeal and intellectual parts of man, as alike impelled by necessary causes, as exquisite pieces of mechanism constructed by the Divine Artificer, wound up and put in motion by the same power, and proceeding harmoniously in the performance of their several functions, though without any dependance on each other, or any reciprocal influence whatever. 3. OPTIMISM. 398. From the hypothesis briefly stated in the last paragraph, viewed in connexion with a firm belief in the being and attributes of God, a third distinguishing principle of the philosophy of Leibnitz obviously arose, viz. his scheme of optimism ; which, in several respects, differs materially from that which had been previously obtained. Since, according to the doctrine of the pre-established harmony, all events in the physical and moral world resulted from the action of necessary causes, operating mechanically, if the Being, by whom this wondrous mechanism was constructed and prearranged, be infinitely wise and good; it followed that "whatever is, is best." The particular modification of optimism, for which Leibnitz contends, may be clearly gathered from the allegory with which he concludes one of the books of his "Theodicea," in which "he represents Tarquin as complaining of his lot, first to Apollo, then to Jupiter; and is at length satisfied with his fate, by being introduced into the palace of the Destinies, and shewn that of all possible volitions, with their train of necessary consequences, that which led to his crime and fall, was, upon the whole, the best." It is easy to perceive, that this scheme involves the notion of fatalism in its grossest and most offensive form, that it is entirely subversive of moral agency and responsibility, and that it obliterates all distinctions between virtue and vice. How far this alarming result may have been counteracted or modified by the religious feelings and principles of the illustrious advocate of this scheme, we pretend not to determine; but assuredly nothing could tend more directly, by a short and demonstrative process, to the utter annihilation of all moral distinctions." 66 IV. LAW OF CONTINUITY. 399. Another distinguishing feature of the philosophy of Leibnitz, to which he was led by his propensity to "à priori" reasonings, and the habit of generalization on all philosophical subjects, consists in his universal application of the "law of continuity.” This term has long since been familiar to natural philosophers, and has been generally admitted with reference to physical science. It is used to express that unbroken order, which pervades the system of the universe; so that no change takes place suddenly, but all is accomplished by infinitely small degrees. It has been shewn, for example, in the science of dynamics, that bodies do not pass instantly from one direction into another, but describe a greater or less curve in their transition from place to place. But whatever may be the conclusions to which scientific and experimental philosophers have been led by their minute observation of natural phænomena, it may be questioned whether the principle will admit of the universal application for which Leibnitz and his followers have strenuously contended. By him it was asserted that this is an eternal and immutable law of nature, applicable no less to the phænomena of mind, than to those of matter. In numerous passages of his writings, Leibnitz refers to this as an indisputable principle in metaphysical science. On this ground he maintains that there cannot be in an intelligent being an entire, and least of all, a sudden cessation of thought;-that there can be no such thing as death, but merely a succession of changes of condition; and that there is a perfect gradation throughout the universe: so that the innumerable ⚫ classes and orders of beings form an unbroken line, a continuous scale of existences, descending from the Deity to the lowest species of unorganized matter. -- Applying the same principle to the history of human improvement, and the progress of science, it is maintained, that the human mind has advanced, and is still advancing-not per saltum-but, to adopt the language of mathematicians, by innumerable infinitesimal steps, towards perfection in knowledge, till it attain the highest elevation of which created intelligence is capable. The great metaphysical argument by which this theory is sustained, is," that it is in the nature of things impossible that any body or substance, whether corporeal or spiritual, should be at the same indivisible instant in two different states--that of motion and that of rest." It falls not within the plan of the present work to discuss these philosophical opinions, but merely to record them as curious speculations, which may be distinctly traced to Leibnitz as their author, and characterizing his philosophical system.* SKETCH OF THE LITERARY HISTORY OF LOCKE. 1 400. THE present retrospect of intellectual science will close with a brief notice of the life and writings of an individual who towers far above all his prede For a more detailed account of these several hypotheses, the reader is referred, with much pleasure, to the second part of the admirable Dissertation of Dugald Stewart, and the notes appended to that dissertation, in which the principal arguments for and against these métaphysical theories are stated, with |
