Part 5

'Parlons selon les lumieres naturelles. S'il y a un Dieu, il est infiniment incompréhensible; puisque, n'ayant ni principes ni bornes, il n'a nul rapport à nous; nous sommes done incapables de connâitre ni ce qn'il est, ni s'il est.'--(See Arago, Biographie de Condorcet, p. lxxxiv., prefixed to his edition of Condorcet's works.)]

These words express clearly a sentiment entertained not merely by the Athenian people, but generally by other societies also. They all agree in antipathy to free, individual, dissenting reason; though that antipathy manifests itself by acts, more harsh in one place, less harsh in another. The Hindoo who declares himself a convert to Christianity, becomes at the same time an outcast ([Greek: aphrhêtôr, athhemistos, anhestios]) among those whose Gods he has deserted. As a general fact, the man who dissents from his fellows upon fundamentals of religion, purchases an undisturbed life only by being content with that 'semi-liberty under silence and concealment,' for which Cicero was thankful under the dictatorship of Julius Cæsar. 'Obsecro--abiiciamus ista et semi-liberi saltern, simus; quod assequemur et tacendo et latendo' (Epist. ad Attic, xiii. 31). Contrast with this the memorable declaration of Socrates, in the Platonic Apology, that silence and abstinence from cross-examination were intolerable to him; that life would not be worth having under such conditions.]

pros tauta, rhipthesthô men aithaloussa phlox, leykoptherps de niphadi kai bronthêmasin chthonhiois kykhatô phanta kahi tarasshetô gnhampsei gar ouden tôndhe m'---- eiselthetô se mhêpot, hôs egô, Dios gnhômên phobêtheis, thêlhynoys genhêsomai, kai liparhêsô ton mhega stygohymenon gynaikomhimois hyptihysmasin cherhôn, lyshai me dhesmôn tônde toy pantos oheô.

Also v. 1047, et seq. The memorable ode of Goethe, entitled Prometheus, embodies a similar vein of sentiment in the finest poetry.]

(Aph) oh gar me thaeseos pais, 'Amazonos tokos monos politon taesde gaes Troizaenias legei kakistaen daimonon pephukenai Phoibou d' adelphaen Artemin,-- tima, megiotaen daimonon aegoumenos--

(Hipp.) taen saen dhe Khyprin pholl' hegô Chairein lhego-- (112.)

See also v. 1328--1402.]

'This natural probability is converted into certainty when we take into consideration that universal law of our experience which is termed the Law of Causation, and which makes us unable to conceive the beginning of anything without an antecedent condition, or cause.' Such 'inability to conceive' appears to us not in correspondence with facts. First, it cannot be properly either affirmed or denied, until agreement is obtained what the word cause means. If three persons, A, B, and C, agree in affirming it--A adopting the meaning of Aristotle, B that of Sir William Hamilton, and C that of Mr Mill--the agreement is purely verbal; or rather, all three concur in having a mental exigency pressing for satisfaction, but differ as to the hypothesis which satisfies it.

Next, if we reason upon Mr Mill's theory as to Cause, certainly those who deny his theory can have no difficulty in conceiving events without any cause (in that sense): nor have those who adopt this theory any greater difficulty. These latter believe that there are, throughout, constant and uniform conditions on which the occurrence of every event depends; but they can perfectly conceive events as occurring without any such uniform sequence. In truth, the belief in such causation, as pervading all nature, is an acquired result of scientific training. The greater part of mankind believe that some events occur in regular, others in irregular succession. Moreover, a full half of the metaphysical world espouse the doctrine of free-will, and consider that all volitions occur without any cause at all.]

The author of this just and sagacious remark--much surpassing what the other writers quoted in the Appendix say--was a Jew who died at Perpignan in or near 1370, named Levi Ben Gerson or Gersonides. An interesting account of this man, eminent as a writer and thinker in his age, will be found in a biography by Dr Joel, published at Breslau in 1862, 'Levi Ben Gerson als Religions--philosoph.' He distinguished himself as a writer on theology, philosophy, and astronomy; he was one of the successors to the free speculative vein of Maimonides, and one of the continuators of the Arabic Aristotelian philosophy. He both commented on and combated the doctrines of Averroes. Dr Joel thinks that he died earlier than 1370.]