Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/697

 SEVENTEENTH CENTURY PHILOSOPHY.] FRANCE 661 than in others, inasmuch as he had absolutely no models, and was forced in a great degree to create the language which he used. The Discours Je hi Mcthode is not only one of the epoch-making books of philosophy, it is also one of the epoch-making books of French style. Almost every page of it might have been written by a master of the 1 inguage at the present day, while there is the greatest possible contrast between these pages and those of even the best French prose writers a few years previously. Nor was the influence of Descartes in literature less than his influence in philosophy. The tradition of his clear and perfect style was taken up, not merely by his philosophical disciples, but also by Pascal (1 623-1 662) and the school of Port Royal, who will be noticed presently. The very genius of the Cartesian philosophy was intimately connected with this clearness, distinctness, and severity of style ; and there is something more than a fanciful contrast between these literary characteristics of Descartes, on the one hand, and the elaborate splendour of Bacon, the knotty and crabbed strength of Hobbes, and the commonplace and almost vulgar slovenliness of Locke. Of the followers of Descartes, putting aside the Port Royalists, by far the most distinguished, both in philosophy and in literature, is Maiebranche (1631-1715). His Recherche de la Verite, admirable as it is for its subtlety and its consecutiveness of thought, is equally admirable for its elegance of style. Malebranche cannot indeed, like his great master, claim absolute originality. But his excellence as a writer is as gr^at as, if not greater than, that of Descartes, and the Ke- c/terche remains to this day the one philosophical treatise of great length and abstruseness which, merely as a book, is d jlightful to read, not like the works of Plato and Berkelej 7 , because of the adventitious graces of dialogue or description, but from the purity and grace of the language, and its admirable adjustment to the purposes of the argument. Yet, for all this, philosophy hardly flourished in France. It was too intimately connected with theological and ecclesi astical questions, and especially with Jansenism, to escape suspicion and persecution. Descartes himself was for much of Ids life an exile in Holland and Sweden ; and though the unquestionable orthodoxy of Malebranche, the strongly religious cast of his works, and the remoteness of the abstruse region in which he sojourned from that of the con troversies of the day protected him, other followers of Descartes were not so fortunate. Holland, indeed, became a kind of city of refuge for students of philosophy, though even in Holland itself they were by no means entirely safe from persecution. By far the most remarkable of French philosophical sojourners in the Netherlands was Pierre Bayle (164:7-1706), a name not perhaps of the first rank in respect of literary value, but certainly of the first as regards literary influence. Bayle, after oscillating between the two confessions, nominally remained a Protestant in religion. In philosophy he in the same manner oscillated between Descartes and Gassendi, finally resting in an equally nominal Cartesianism. Bayle was in fact, both in philo sophy and in religion, merely a sceptic, with a scepticism at once like and unlike that of Montaigne, and differenced both by temperament and circumstance. The scepticism of Montaigne is mainly moral in character, and represents the good-humoured but satiated indifference of the gentleman of the Renaissance, who has known both business and pleasure, a ud, though undervaluing neither, sees the drawbacks of both. That of Bayle is the scepticism of the mere student, exercised more or less in all histories, sciences, and philo sophies, and intellectually unable or unwilling to take a side. His style is hardly to be called good, being diffuse and often inelegant. But his great dictionary, though one of the most heterogeneous and unmethodical of compositions, exercised an enormous influence both on the Continent and in Eng land, especially on the Continent. It has been or might be called the Bible of the 18th century, and contains in the germ all the desultory philosophy, the ill-ordered scepticism, and the critical but negatively critical acuteness of the Aiifkliiruny. Locke and Newton had indeed to be super- added to Bayle, and Voltaire in matter, though by no means in form, represents little more than the union of the three. We have said that the philosophical, theological, and moral tendencies of the century, which produced, with the exception of its dramatic triumphs, all its greatest literary works, are almost inextricably intermingled. Its earliest years, however, bear in theological matters rather the com plexion of the previous century. Du Perron and St Francis of Sales survived until nearly the end of its first quarter, and the most remarkable works of the latter bear the dates of 1608 and later. It was not, however, till some years had passed, till the counter-Reformation had reconverted the largest and most powerful portion of the Huguenot party, and till the influence of Jansenius and Descartes had time to work, that the extraordinary outburst of Gallican theo- ! logy, both in pulpit and press, took place. The Jansenist The Jan- I controversy may perhaps be awarded the merit of provoking seuists. I this, as far as writing was concerned. The extraordinary i eloquence of contemporary pulpit oratory may be set down I De Sales had given the example, partly to the same taste of the time which encouraged dramatic performances, for the sermon and the tirade have much in common. Jan senius himself, though a Dutchman by birth, passed much time in France, and it was in France that he found most disciples. These disciples consisted in the first place of the members of the society of Port Royal des Champs, a coterie after the fashion of the time, but one which devoted itself not to sonnets or madrigals but to devotional exercises, study, and the teaching of youth. This coterie early Port adopted the Cartesian philosophy, and the Port Royal logic Koyal. was the most remarkable popular hand book of that school. In theology they adopted Jansenism, and were in conse quence soon at daggers drawn with the Jesuits, according to the polemical habits of the time. The most distinguished champions on the Jansenist side were the Abbe de St Cyran and Antoine Arnauld, but by far the most important literary results of the quarrel were the famous Provinciates of Pascal, or, to give them their proper title, Lettres ficrites a un Provincial. The original occasion of these remark able letters was the condemnation of Arnauld at the Sor- bonne. They produced an immense effect ; their printers were subjected to vigorous police investigations, but in vain ; and the incognito of the author was long preserved. With their matter we have nothing to do here. Their Pascal, literary importance consists, not merely in their grace of style, but in the application to serious discussion of the peculiarly polished and quiet irony of which Pascal is the greatest master the world has ever seen. Up to this time controversy had usually been conducted either in the mere bludgeon fashion of the Scaligers and Saumaises, of which in the vernacular the Jesuit Garasse (1585-1631) had already contributed remarkable examples to literary and moral controversy, or else in a dull and legal style, or lastly under an envelope of Rabelaisian buffoonery, such as sur vives to a considerable extent in the Satire Menippee. Pascal set the example of combining the use of the most terribly effective weapons with good humour, good breeding, and a polished style. The example was largely followed, and the manner of Voltaire and his followers in the 18th century owes at least as much to Pascal as their method and matter do to Bayle. The Jansenists, attacked and perse cuted by the civil power, which the Jesuits had contrived to interest, were, finally suppressed. But the Provincialea
 * partly to the zeal for conversion of which Du Perron and