Sivut kuvina
PDF
ePub

that I dedicate this work: it is by the auspicious influence of those that the world can be enlightened.

The former brightness of the South becomes more dim, while the dawn of the North shines forth with increasing radiance. It is the North that now emits the rays which penetrate even to Austria. Every thing there hastens towards an extraordinary change. The assiduous attention bestowed by the emperor to alleviate the weight of the imposts, and improve the discipline of his army, shews plainly that he entertains a desire of becoming the darling of his subjects; that he wishes to render them happy at home, and respectable to foreign nations. The esteem for the king of Prussia, professed from his earliest years, afford a presage of his future virtues! Esteem always indicates a similarity of disposition to the object of it.

CON.

!

[ocr errors]

That this inconsistency is caused by the opposition which subsists be-
tween the interests of the clergy and those of the laity.
That every false religion is detrimental to the public.

That such a religion is simple, and nothing else than the best possible

legislation.

That the case is not the same with those religions which are mysterious.
What those are, the establishment of which would be productive of the
least disadvantage.

CHAP. XIV. Of the conditions, without which a religion is de-

structive to national felicity,

CHAP. XV. Among the false religions, which have been least de-

trimental to the happiness of society?..................... 65

It follows from the different questions examined in this and the pre-
ceding chapters, that supposing all men to be naturally endowed
with equal capacities, the difference of their education alone would
necessarily occasion a great diversity in their ideas and talents:
Whence I conclude, that the actual inequality observed in the under-
standing of different persons, ought not to be considered, in the case
of men organized in the ordinary manner, as an undeniable proof of
their capacities being likewise unequal.

ALL MEN, COMMONLY WELL ORGANIZED, HAVE AN EQUAL AP-

TITUDE TO UNDERSTANDING,

CHAP. I. As all our ideas proceed from the senses; the under-

standing has been consequently regarded as the effect of

more or less sensibility in the organization, ............ ibid.
In order to prove the falsehood of this opinion, it is necessary that we
form a clear idea of the word Understanding, and consider it sepa-
rately from the mind.

CHAP. II. Of the difference between the mind and the soul, ... 97

CHAP. III. Of the objects on which the mind acts, .....
109

CHAP. IV. How the mind acts, ................

That all its operations may be reduced to the remarking of the resem

blances and differences between objects, and their fitness or unfitness

with respect to us.

That the judgment formed after a comparison of physical objects, is
a pure sensation; and that the case is the same in every judgment
relating to abstract ideas, &c.

CHAP. V. Of such judgments as result from the comparison of

ideas that are abstract, collective, &c. .................... 114

That this comparison supposes the exercises of attention and labour,
and consequently an interest in the object.

CHAP. VI. Where there is no interest, there is no comparison of

objects with each other, ........

........ 119

That, as interest derives its origin entirely from physical sensibility,
all human motives may be reduced to the principle of sensation.

CHAP. VII. Corporeal sensibility is the sole cause of our actions,

our thoughts, our passions, and our sociability, .... 124

CHAP. VIII. Of sociability, ........

CHAP. IX. A justification of the principles admitted in the

Treatise on the Mind, .....

« EdellinenJatka »