Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/556

Rh 524 COUSIN education of the people than had been either sought or accomplished in all the history of France. France since then has, perhaps, owing to political troubles and ecclesi astical obstacles, followed but faltcringly in the steps of Prussia; but some considerable progress has been made on the lines laid down by Cousin in a spirit of far-seeing patriotism. If, in 1866, about 30 per cent, of the military conscripts were unable to read, yet we must put alongside of this the fact that, while in 1824, the year of the accession of Charles X., out of the 44,000 communes of France 25,000 were without schools, in that same year of 1866 there were 41,000 free and public schools for boys, and 14,000 for girls. In connection with his services to education we ought not to omit a notice of his noble and eloquent defence of university studies in the Chamber of Peers in 1844, when he stood manfully forth against the clerical party on the one hand, and the levelling or Philistine party on the other. His speeches on this occasion were afterwards published in a most interesting tractate entitled Defense de VUniversite et de la Philosophic. &quot;. Philoso- This period of official life from 1830 to 1848 was spent phical by him, so far as philosophical study was concerned, in writings. re vising his former lectures and writings, in maturing them for publication or re-issue, and in research into certain periods of the history of philosophy. In 1835 appeared De la Metaphysique d Aristote, suivi d un Essai de traduc- tion des deux premiers livres ; in 1836, Cours de philo- sophie professe a lafaculte des lettres pendant Vannee 1818, and Ouvrages inedits d Abelard. This Cours de Philosophic appeared later in 1854 as Du Vrai, du Beau, et du Bien. From 1825 to 1840 appeared Cours de VHistoirc de la Philo sophic, in 1839 Manuel de VHistoire de la Philosophic de Tennemann, translated from the German. In 1840-41 we have Cours d Histoire de la Philosophic Morale au XVIII 6 Siecle (5 vols). In 1841 appeared his edition of the CEuvres Philosophiques de Maine-de-Biran ; in 1842, Lemons de Philosophic sur Kant, and in the same year Des Pensees de Pascal. The Nouvcaux Fragments were gathered together and republished in 1847, Later, in 1859, appeared Petri Abcelardi Opera. Literary During this period also he seems to have turned with studies. fresh interest to those literary studies which in his youth he had abandoned for speculation under the influence of Laromiguiere and Royer-Collard. To this renewed interest we owe his studies of men and women of note in Franco in the 17th century. This was an epoch of the national history whose spiritualism, aliks in philosophy and religion, had a special attraction for him. He turned to it with increasing regard in his latter years, as best representing his own personal convictions and feelings. As the results of his work in this line, we have, besides the Des Pensees de Pascal, 1842, already noticed, Etudes sur les Femmes et la Societe du XVIP Siecle, 1853. He has sketched Jacqueline Pascal, Madame de Longueville, Madame de Sable&quot;, Madamo de Chevreuse, Madame de Hautefort. There is as yet no complete edition of his numerous works, which is a great desideratum. When the reign of Louis Philippe came to a close through the opposition of his ministry, with Guizot at its head, to the demand for electoral reform and through the disgrace ful policy of the Spanish marriages, Cousin, who was opposed to the Government on these points, lent his sympathy to Cavaignac and the Provisional Government. He published a pamphlet entitled Justice et Charite, the purport of which showed the moderation of his political views. It was markedly anti-socialistic. But from this period he passed almost entirely from public life, and ceased to wield the personal influence which he had done during the preceding years. After the coup d etat of the 2d December, he was deprived of his position as permanent member of the superior council of public instruction. From Napoleon and the empire he stood essentially aloof. A decree of 1852 placed him along with Guizot and Villemain in the rank of honorary professors. His sympathies were apparently with the monarchy, under certain constitutional safeguards. Speaking in 1853 of the political issues of the spiritual philosophy which he had taught during his lifetime, he says, &quot; It conducts human societies to the true republic, that dream of all generous souls, which in our time can be realized in Europe o^ly by constitutional monarchy.&quot; 1 During the last years of his life, he occupied a suite of La rooms in the Sorbonne, where he lived very simply and ye; unostentatiously. The chief feature of the rooms was the noble library, the cherished collection of a lifetime, which was spread over the walls of each apartment. Besides Latin and Greek, classics, representing the studies of his youth, it was rich in philosophical literature, especially historical. The compartments for Italian and English literature and philosophy were especially full and interest ing ; and the whole was so carefully and methodically arranged that its learned possessor could quite readily lay his hand on any volume of his treasures. The present writer may perhaps be pardoned for saying that he well recollects a forenoon spent with him in these rooms, somo twelve years ago. The kindliness of his manner, the rich ness of his talk, his wonderful acquaintance with British literature, politics, and philosophy, the massive head with hair slightly turned to grey, and the kindling dark brown eyes, are elements in the picture of a very pleasant memory. M. Cousin died at Cannes on the 13th January 1867De in his sixty-fifth year. In the front of the Sorbonne, below the lecture-rooms of the faculty of letters, is a tablet recording an extract from the will of Victor Cousin, in which he appropriately bequeathes his noble and cherished library to the halls of his professorial work and triumphs. There are three distinctive points in the philosophy of HI M. Cousin. These are his method, the results of his method, soj and the application of the method and its results to his tory, especially to the history of philosophy. It is usual to speak of his philosophy as eclecticism. It is eclectic only in a secondary and subordinate sense. All eclecticism that is not self-condemned and inoperative implies a system of doctrine as its basis, in fact, a criterion of truth. Otherwise, as Cousin himself remarks, it is simply a blind and useless syncretism. And Cousin saw and proclaimed from an early period in his philosophical teaching the necessity of a system on which to base his eclecticism. This is indeed advanced as an illustration or confirmation of the truth of his system, as a proof that the facts of history correspond to his analysis of consciousness. These three points the method, the results, and the philosophy of history are with him intimately connected ; they are developments in a natural order of sequence. They become in practice Psychology, Ontology, and Eclecticism in history. First, as to method. On no point has Cousin more Me strongly and frequently insisted than the importance of the method which philosophy may adopt. That which he adopts, and the necessity of which he so strongly proclaims, is tlie ordinary one of observation, analysis, and induction. This may seem commonplace enough, but it is really not so ; it makes all the difference in the world as to the char acter of a philosophy whether we follow the reflective analysis of experience, or a deductive method of the con struction of notions. The observational method Cousin 1 Du Vrai, Du Beau, Du Bien, Preface.