Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

may form fome judgment of it from the following fpecimen, which will give them, at the fame time, fome idea of the Author's tafte and manner of writing; we fhall take it from that part of the work which treats of the arts, learning, and fcience of the Greeks. Part of what he fays concerning their philofophy is as follows:

When the minds of men are fet in motion, and they are led by curiofity, emulation, or any other motive, to dedicate their attention to ftudy, it is impoffible that all can purfue the fame track; fo that if the belles lettres have an invincible attraction for fome, there are others no lefs delighted with the fciences: a paffion for acquiring knowledge, and a love of fearching after truth, fhew themselves even in the train of the mufes. When the pleasures derived from reason begin to be relished, thofe of the imagination lofe their influence upon those serious active minds who prefer the folid to the agreeable, or rather who find what is agreeable in the difcovery of truth. Man, fociety, and nature, prefent to them an immenfe field for reflection and enquiry: they embrace philofophy because there alone can they find the gratification of their defires.

The firft philofophers were fages who chiefly dedicated their attention to the ftudy and practice of morality. What could beft fecure the happiness of individuals or of the ftate, was the subject of their meditations; their deepest contemplations related to that objea; they were unacquainted with vain fubtilties and contentions about words, or with a paffion for fupporting different systems and feats, which produced fuch numberless errors and extravagancies, when fenfe was forfaken for intellectual caufes, and the love of truth was facrificed to opinion. They afterwards loft themselves in different hypothefes on the origin of the world, the firft caufe, the fupreme good, &c. &c. Wifdom evaporated in idle reveries, and endless fophiftry. What was faid to Thales of Miletus, by a good woman, who faw him fall while contemplating the ftars, may be applied to most of the ancient philofophers. How should you know the heavens, faid he, when you do not fee what is at your feet!

The Grecian philofophy was divided into two branches, the Ionic and Italian fects; both of which were fubdivided into feveral others. Thales, the cotemporary of Solon, was at the head of the first, and Pythagoras the chief of the fecond. I fhall only speak as a hiftorian, and mention the most celebrated philofophers, but in a few words, confining myfelf to what is moft interefting.

Pythagoras deferves to be ranked firft, becaufe he laboured effectually in the caufe of morals. It was not in the time of Numa, as numbers have fuppofed, but in that of Tarquin the proud, about five hundred and forty years before the chriftian era, that that great man did fo much honour to Greece, and fo much good to Italy. He was believed to be a native of Samos, and having heard the reasonings of a philofopher upon the immortality of the foul, immediately devoted himself in a kind of enthufiafm, to the ftudy of philofophy. He travelled into Egypt, Phoenicia, Chaldea, and probably as far as the Indies, in queft of knowledge. Though a geometrician and aftronomer, he looked upon virtue as the first of the fciences, and

was

was perfuaded that he was born to make profelytes. After having taught fome time in Greece, he went into that part of Italy, which is called Magna Grecia, becaufe of the colonies by which it was peopled. Crotona, Metapontum and Tarentum, were the places in which he chiefly refided. Here he did not fhut himself up in the fhade of his closet, but openly harangued in the cause of virtue, to reform the manners of the people. Crotona, a place noted for debauchery, very foon changed its appearance; a reformation took place, the women ftript themfelves of their ornaments, and the marriage vow became inviolably facred. Several other towns of Italy likewife followed the inftructions of the philofopher, and were governed by his counfels. One of his maxims was, that there were but five things which ought to be combated; the difeafes of the body, the ignorance of the mind, the paffions of the heart, fedition in cities, and difcord in private families.

He lived in the fame fociety with his difciples, and made them fubmit to a kind of noviciate, for at leaft two years, and fome for five, during which time they were to learn in filence, without being entitled to enquire the reaion of his doctrines, because he did not imagine they were capable of reafoning until they had imbibed good principles. He taught them to reafon by making them acquainted with geometry, without which they could not difcover a quack or impoftor. Whatever he said, was received as an oracle. The master faid fo, was fufficient to flop the mouths of his fcholars. Did he then order a blind fubmiffion, or did he difpel their doubts by perfuafion? The true philofopher can never think of tyrannizing over the human mind, and it is not probable that a geometrician would defire to be believed upon his word.

His doctrine of the divinity was excellent. He taught the unity of God, the author of all things, an infinite almighty fpirit, incapable of fuffering, who is not an object of our fenfes, or perceivable but to the understanding. His defire was, that all our actions, and all our application, fhould be directed to make us refemble the Deity, by the acquifition of truth; adding, that to know the truth, it is neceffary to feek it with a pure heart, and keep the paffions in perfect fubjection. Perhaps it is without any foundation that the opinion of the Stoics has been afcribed to him; that God is the foul of the univerfe, from whence human fouls are derived as parts from their whole but at least he does not feem to have taken it in the fame fense with the materialifts.

The metempfychofis was a fundamental part of his doctrine, in confequence of which, he forbad the killing and eating of animals. The rewarding the good, and punithing the wicked were connected with this idea, which was fpread over all Afia and Egypt. It must be owned that this was an ufeful error for thofe people who had not the advantage of revelation to inform them of a future ftate.

• Some miracles and abfurd ftories have been handed down about Pythagoras, because he was looked upon as infpired. Impofitions equally improbable, have likewife been attributed to him; but the laws of his difciples, Zaleucus and Charondas, of which fome valuable fragments have been preferved by Diodorus, ferve as a proof of his profound wisdom, amidst the ignorance of idolatry, The first

of

of these was a lawgiver of the Sibarites, a people formerly noted for their effeminacy; the fecond, of the Locrians in Italy. The preamble to the laws of Zaleucus dwells upon the existence of the Deity, to whom every good which we enjoy ought to be afcribed, who difdains the facrifices of the wicked, and who fhould be honoured by purity of morals and the exercife of every virtue. A body of laws erected upon fuch a foundation, is the more to be refpected, as it infpires mankind with a love of thofe duties which it prescribes.

Thales, the chief of the Ionic feet, faid that water was the first principle of all things, and that God, a fpiritual fubftance, which he believed to be the foul of matter, had formed every thing out of water, Anaxagoras, about an age after Thales, taught that the formation of the univerfe ought to be afcribed to an infinitely powerful and wife being. He believed that matter was eternal, and his fucceffors adhered to that opinion. However, it was the greatest step that could be taken by a philofopher to exalt his knowledge to the belief of a Supreme Being, whofe wisdom had formed the world. Anaxagoras appeared impious in the eyes of the Athenians, because he faid that the fun was a flaming substance; for which he would have been put to death, if Pericles had not made him fly from that fuperftitious city. Such are the decifions of ignorance, animated by a blind zeal, which is a difgrace to that religion it pretends to fupport. Upon that Philofopher being afked whether he chofe to have his body, after his death, carried to Clazomene, the place of his nativity: To what purpofe? replied he, the road to the other world is as fport from one place as another.

Socrates, the difciple of Anaxagoras, dedicated all his labours to ferve the cause of virtue; he laughed at the vanity of the fophifts, and taught his pupils to think that the proper ftudy of man, was to know himself, that he might become better; he devoted his philofophy to the good of the public, from which it never fhould be feparated, and was made to drink the hemlock like an impious criminal, as a reward for his piety, and fervices to his country.

"Socrates committed nothing to writing; but Plato, his difciple, compofed many excellent pieces in an eloquent ftyle, upon the Deity, the foul, laws, and the duties of morality, though he introduced a number of extravagant ideas, from whence an infinity of chimeras were produced. He was governed by fancy, but a philofopher fhould hearken only to reafon. He created an intellectual world, in which genii, numbers, and fantastical relations, formed a perfect chaos. Pythagoras had employed numbers, probably as figns; but Plato employed them as reafons, and nature was forgot in all his fyftems: it could not be found either in his phyfics or metaphyfics, nor even in his morals, and fill lefs in his politics, the principles of which are impracticable: nevertheless, he is often so admirable, that even his imperfections are enticing. I fhould like better to be deceived with Plato, faid Cicero, than to think right with the other philosophers (Tufcul. 1.) A ftrange maxim indeed, but ferves to fhew that the greatcft geniufes fometimes are dupes to prejudice.

Ariftotle, of Stagyra in Macedonia, the most celebrated of all the difciples of Plato, was of very different fentiments, and was the founder

[ocr errors]

founder of the fect of Paripatetics. When Alexander fet out on his expedition to Afia, Ariftotle went to teach at Athens, from whence he withdrew upon being accused of impiety by a priest of Ceres, though without any proof being offered; to prevent the Athenians, as he faid, from committing a fecond ffence against philofophy. His doctrine of the Deity is equivocal. Sometimes he would have it that the world is God; at other times that there is a God fuperior to the world. The obfcurity in which almost every subject he has handled is immerfed, has been greatly increased by the ignorance of modern peripatetics; but he has left some very valuable monuments of his abilities upon politics, natural hillory, and the belles lettres, in which there is ample room to admire the extent of his knowledge, and the acuteness of his genius.

The academy, or school of Plato, grew very foon tired of that dogmatical philofophy, whofe opinions adopted at random, could not convince people who were capable of reasoning; they therefore followed the method of Socrates, who maintained nothing that was doubtful. Arce filas, who was founder of the middle academy, went from one extreme to another. He feemed to doubt of every thing; and fufpended his judgment upon all fubjects, as if there was no fuch thing as truth in the world. The new academy founded by Carneades, followed a fyftem, which in appearance was not fo extravagant, but in the end amounted to almoft the fame thing. He ac knowledged that there were truths, but fo obfcure, and confounded with fo many errors, that they could not be difcerned with any degree of certainty; and thus his followers were permitted to act from probabilities, provided they affirmed nothing pofitively. There was at leaft modefty in this philofophy. What a multitude of errors and contentions would have been prevented, if doubts had not been extended to those principles which have been best established by reason and fentiment!'

Our Author concludes what he fays upon this fubject with obferving, that the fpeculative philofophy of the Greeks has produced fcarcely any thing but errors and difputes; becaufe, inftead of having recourfe to experiment, they erected systems, and dreamed when they ought to have been employed in making obfervations;—that a tafte for fophiftry and ill-founded fubtleties became common to all the different fects, and gave rife to thofe numerous follies and chimeras which have been handed down to the present times.

He introduces what he fays concerning the poetry of the Greeks with the following obfervations:

A delicate tale, a lively imagination, a fertility of genius, a rich harmonious language, eminent abilities excited by the moft ardent emulation, all together contributed to make the Greeks in point of learning, the matters and models of the whole world. Their incomparable language, univerfally flexible, and fit to embellish every fubject, had under the pen of Homer, united grace, ftrength, and majesty, and was worthy either to celebrate the praifes of Jupiter, or of Venus; which, if I am not mistaken, evidently proves, that there were good writers before the time of Homer, for languages

are

are formed but very flowly, and can be improved only by the labours of the learned.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Poetry has almost always been prior to every other kind of learning, which is undoubtedly owing to its being the produce of fentiment and fancy, two faculties of the mind always employed before reafon. Senfible minds are led by a kind of inftinct to fing their pleafures, their happinefs, the gods whom they adore, the heroes they admire, and the events they wish to have engraven upon their memories accordingly poetry has been cultivated in all favage nations. The warmth of the paffions has been of great ufe in promoting this delightful art, but the cause of humanity as often given a fubject for the fong of the poet. The intention of the Iliad of Homer, was to file that difcord which prevailed in the minds of the Greeks, and by exhibiting a view of the noble deeds of their ancellors, to inspire them with a paffion for performing heroic actions. If the milder virtues had been known at that time; it is probable they had likewife been celebrated by Homer.'

The fecond volume carries the Hiftory of the Romans down to the establishment of Mahometanifm in the feventh century.To the first volume is annexed a Table of ancient Geography, and to the fecond a Chronological Table of fome of the principal Facts recorded in ancient Hiftory.

ART. VII. Confiderations on the prefent State of public Affairs, and the Means of raising the neceffary Supplies. By William Pulteney, Efq; 8vo. 1s. DodЛley, &c. 1779.

THE fenfible and moderate Writer of thefe Confiderations, TH Tlaid before laid before the Public, last year, the fentiments he then entertained concerning our American affairs. As matters are now in a very different fituation, he thinks it his duty, in a crifis of fuch importance, and even danger, to contribute every thing in his. power to the public fervice, by giving his opinion upon a fubject, which, he fays, muft have exercised the anxious thoughts of the ablest men in the kingdom.

Whatever may be thought of his plan for raifing the neceffary fupplies, within the year; or whatever fentiments may be entertained in regard to what he advances concerning our unhappy conteft with America, every unprejudiced reader, we cannot but think, will be pleafed with the temper and spirit with which he writes. He delivers his opinion with a manly but decent freedom, like one who has nothing in view but the public good, and who means to ferve the interefted views of no party whatsoever.

It were much to be wifhed, that gentlemen of leisure and ability, of large and comprehenfive views, would follow Mr. Pulteney's example, apply themfelves, with the utmost serioufnefs and attention to the confideration of public affairs, and publish their fentiments, not with that bold, illiberal and decifive tone which marks the mere party-writer, but with that decent,

I

« AnteriorContinuar »