answered to the credit of Peyrere. Bayle, in his Dictionary, would give the impression, that the conversion was no better than a sham. He quotes the following extract, from a private letter of a gentleman, who professed to know Peyrere, and to be acquainted with the circumstances of the case:

"I think that I am able to give you an exact account of what you desire of me, because Mr. de la Peyrere was my very good friend. He was arrested at Brussels at the time mentioned by your author. But the secret history of it is, that the late prince concerned himself in that business by means of his confessor, who was a Jesuit and loved Mr. de la Peyrere, bating his religion, which he would have him to change. The machine of the Pre-Adamite was therefore set a-going;* he was arrested and made afraid of the consequences of his book, unless he changed his religion. The good man, who was not obstinate about what is called religion, changed it very soon, and his master gave him wherewith to go and fetch his absolution at Rome, which he did not much value. He returned to his master, who loved him to the last, and maintained him, since his return into France, in the house of the Fathers of the Oratory of Paris. I have often seen him there and found that he was far from being a true Papist; but he was very fond of his notion concerning the Pre-Adamites, about which he writ and spoke secretly to his friends to his dying day. The Procurator General of that Order, who is a friend of mine and who loved him, invited me to dine with him, and made him confess that he writ books still, which he told me softly would be burnt after the death of the good man. La Peyrere was an extraordinary good-natured man, and calmly believed but a little."

The letter was obviously penned by one who had no great faith in the religion of other people besides Peyrere. Yet Peyrere's Apology and Petition to the Pope attest the essential

*In his Deprecatio addressed to the Pope, Peyrere says that when he followed his master to Belgium, he intrusted his manuscript to a friend, with a strict charge to keep it safe until his return, and to give a copy to no one. Some time afterwards, quite unexpectedly, and in an unexplained way, the manuscript was sent to him at Brussels. He was then called to Amsterdam, and, being unwilling to let the manuscript go out of his hands again, he carried it with him. In that bookmaking city, he says: "I found myself surrounded by a throng of printers, who importuned me to let them print my book. What was I to do? I could not carry the manuscript with me every where I went. I had no one to leave it with, and I feared lest it might be lost. I yielded, therefore, to the urgency of the printers, and gave them the manuscript, on condition of receiving one hundred printed copies." This seems to confirm the statement of Bayle's correspondent, and to show that Peyrere was cajoled into printing his book by the contrivance of his friends.

truth of the statement. His reasons are trivial, and his whole manner is that of a man who is going through a necessary form. Having described the circumstances of his arrest by the order of the Grand Vicar of the Archbishop of Mechlin, and the sudden death of that officer, he says:

"After the death of the Vicar, letters came from your holiness, which intimated that your holy mind was greatly disturbed by what had been written about me, how that I was an abominable heretic. This grieved my master the Prince, to whose strong and faithful protection I had committed all my interests. But, on the other hand, so great was his reverence for the Apostolic chair and his pious awe of your holiness, that he was unwilling to do anything which might offend you. And so to relieve his mind, harassed by all manner of anxiety respecting me, and under the promptings of divine grace to consult for my own safety, I earnestly besought his serene highness to obtain permission from your holiness to cast myself at your feet, and to submit myself, my book, and my all to your decision.”

A truly remarkable conversion! To relieve his master from embarrassment and to get himself out of prison, he was, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, willing to disown his heresies and bow down to the Pope. But the honest simplicity of the man, in this narrative of his experience, must shield him from the charge of gross hypocrisy. In truth, it was not in his power to be a thorough hypocrite. He could never have taken an assumed part, and carried it out for a long period of years. But he was equally removed from the serious, thoughtful mind which clings to its strong convictions even at great cost. We are to regard him, rather, as a man of average honesty but of no deep earnestness; and his submission to the Catholic Church was probably, in his own mind, not so much a change of principles as of ecclesiastical position. He doubtless tells the truth in his Apology, when he says, that the idea of the one Universal Church had always been attractive to him, that he regarded schism as in itself an evil, and regretted the separation which Luther had made from the Catholic communion. He complains that, when his book was published, the Calvinists attacked him with uncommon virulence. Such conduct in those whom he had regarded as his brethren, piqued and of fended him; especially, since they sought not so much to con

vince by reasoning as to overwhelm by authority; thus turning against him the weapons which the Catholics had used against themselves. He was virtually cast out of that schismatic communion in which he had been born and reared; why should he not return to the Mother Church? And if he must submit to authority, why not take that which stood upon the broadest basis, the authority of Popes and Councils? Add to this, his position as a prisoner for heresy, was an embarrassment to his Prince, who was unwilling to leave him in prison, yet could not afford to defy the ecclesiastical power. These considerations would have been enough to make most men take the course which Peyrere pursued. Plainly, the world was not ready for his theory, and, like Galileo, he could recant and leave the world to believe in its own good time. Perhaps doubts crossed his own mind, while theologians were pouring their arguments and anathemas upon him. But the storm over, and fairly within the fold of the Church, his old conviction returned. He had submitted, but he was not persuaded. Catholic or Protestant, he would stick to his theory, and declared that he could not be convinced that it was contrary to the Scriptures. M. Simon, in his letters, says that he had often disputed with him without leaving the slightest impression upon his mind; and the same writer mentions that he had heard it reported that when Peyrere was at the point of death, he was beset by one of the Fathers in regard to his "Prae-Adamites" and his "Recall of the Jews." The Father wished him to retract what he had said in these books, but he avoided doing so, and when he saw himself closely pressed, replied to his Catechist in the words of the Epistle of Jude: "Hi quaecumque ignorant blasphemant."

If the materials are lacking for a complete biography of Peyrere, enough may be gleaned from his writings and the notices of contemporaries to afford an estimate of the mental qualities and moral worth of the man. Without learning or logical strength, he had nevertheless an ingenious mind. He was a fluent and plausible talker, always ready to discuss the vagaries to which he was given with any intelligent listener. We need not wonder that his friends liked him; for, if he had

no high aims, he was simple and pure in his life, and the evenness of his temper rendered him acceptable to all. In his private relations, and in the public profession of his opinions, we can easily discern an "extraordinary good natured man, who calmly believed but a little."

ART. V.-JOURDAIN'S PHILOSOPHY OF THOMAS

AQUINAS.

By Rev. J. F. ASTIÉ, Professor in the Academy of the Free Church, Lausanne, Switzerland.

LA PHILOSOPHIE DE SAINT THOMAS D'AQUIN, par Charles Jourdain, Agrégé des Facultés des Lettres, Chef de Division au Ministère de l'Instruction publique et des Cultes. Ouvrage couronné par l'Institut Impérial de France. 2. 8°. Paris: Hachette. 1858.

EVER since the sensualist school was definitely supplanted by eclecticism, important works in history and philosophy have reäppeared in France. The Academy of Moral and Political Science, by the various competitions which it has instituted, has evidently shown that, while upholding the influence of mental activity, it also sought to direct it. This Academy was supplanted, the 3d Pluviose, year XI, by Bonaparte who was not fond of ideologists. Since its restoration in 1832 under the ministry of M. Guizot, this institution has not ceased to call the attention of the friends of philosophy to the greatest movements and the most celebrated epochs which the history of this science presents. Through its incitement, antiquity, the present times and the middle ages have been successively studied.

The present work of M. Jourdain is one of these prize writings. The author has given to the public, with some modifi

cations, the manuscript presented to the Academy. M. Jourdain supposes, that in instituting a literary competition having reference to Saint Thomas, the Academy intended to proclaim in the name of the highest literary tribunal in the world, the alliance which ought to exist between reason and faith, between philosophy and religion. However it may be as to the intention which our author attributes to the Academy, the simple choice of this subject is an important event. To call for competition with respect to a schoolman, a theologian and a saint! and then to crown the essay which proclaims Thomas Aquinas one of the greatest among the learned, one of the most useful authors upon whom to meditate, this is unquestionably a sign of the times, a characteristic mark of the spirit which reigns in the French philosophic world.

The theological character of the philosophy of the middle ages had thrown discredit upon it. Accustomed to separate philosophy entirely from religion, many minds experienced a sort of antipathy to the epoch in which this divorce was unknown. In fact, the modification which human thought has undergone from antiquity to the present day is religious in its sources. From the fall of the Greek Schools to the time of the Renaissance metaphysics was inseparably mixed with theology. The middle ages were the era of an intense and even passionate philosophic culture, and in losing sight of the religious idea this culture appears incomprehensible. And moreover, although the scholastic philosophy is a thorough mixture of both positive theology and rational investigation, it is acknowledged that a serious study of it is indispensable to an understanding of the modern philosophy.

M. Jourdain's work is of great value to all who take an interest in these important subjects. In the first place, this work has been performed with a feeling of genuine sympathy. "As a theologian," says M. Jourdain, "Saint Thomas, surnamed the Angel of the School, has been placed by the unanimous vote of Catholicism in a rank where he has no superiors, if he has even equals. No father of the Church, no doctor, has penetrated further into the mysterious depths of Christian doctrine and morality. No one, if I may be allowed to say so, has