Page:Supplement to the fourth, fifth, and sixth editions of the Encyclopaedia Britannica - with preliminary dissertations on the history of the sciences - illustrated by engravings (IA gri 33125011196181).pdf/175

Rh sible expedient for reconciling these two articles of his creed, was to transfer the seat of our ideas from our own minds to that of the Creator.

In this theory of Malebranche, there is undoubtedly, as Bayle has remarked, an approach to some speculations of the latter Platonists; but there is a much closer coincidence between it and the system of those Hindoo philosophers, who (according to Sir William Jones) “believed that the whole creation was rather an energy than a work; by which the infinite Mind, who is present at all times, and in all places, exhibits to his creatures a set of perceptions, like a wonderful picture, or piece of music, always varied, yet always uniform.”

In some of Malebranche’s reasonings upon this subject, he has struck into the same train of thought which was afterwards pursued by Berkeley (an author to whom he bore a very strong resemblance in some of the most characteristical features of his genius); and, had he not been restrained by religious scruples, he would, in all probability, have asserted, not less confidently than his successor, that the existence of matter was demonstrably inconsistent with the principles then universally admitted by philosophers. But this conclusion Malebranche rejects, as not reconcilable with the words of Scripture, that “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” “La foi m’apprend que Dieu a crée le ciel et la terre. Elle m’apprend que l’Ecriture est un livre divin. Et ce livre ou son apparence me dit nettement et positivement, qu’ll y a mille et mille creatures. Donc voilà toutes mes apparences changées en realités. Il y a des corps; cela est démontré en toute rigueur Ia foy supposée.”

In reflecting on the repeated reproduction of these, and other ancient paradoxes, by modern authors, whom it would be highly unjust to accuse of plagiarism;—still more, in reflecting on the affinity of some of our most refined theories to the popular belief in a remote quarter of the globe, one is almost tempted to suppose, that human invention is li-

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