FACULTY.

ALL the powers of matter and mind are faculties ; and, what is still worse, faculties of which we know nothing, perfectly occult qualities; to begin with motion, of which no one has ever discovered the origin.

When the president of the faculty of medicine, in the "Malade Imaginaire," asks Thomas Diafoirus,"Quare opium facit dormire?" Why does opium cause sleep? Thomas very pertinently replies,-"Quia est in eo virtus dormitiva quæ facit sopiere." Because it possesses a dormitive power producing sleep. The greatest philosophers cannot speak more to the purpose.

The honest chevalier Jaucour acknowledges, under the article SLEEP, that it is impossible to go beyond conjecture with respect to the cause of it. Another Thomas, and in much higher reverence than his bachelor namesake in the comedy, has in fact made no other reply to all the questions which are started throughout his immense volumes.

It is said, under the article FACULTY, in the grand Encyclopædia," that the vital faculty once established in the intelligent principle by which we are animated, it may be easily conceived that the faculty, stimulated by the expressions which the vital sensorium transmits to part of the common sensorium, determines the alternate influx of the nervous fluid into the fibres which move the vital organs in order to produce the alternate contraction of those organs."

This amounts precisely to the answer of the young physician Thomas,-" Quia est in eo virtus alterniva quæ facit alternare.” And Thomas Diafoirus has at least the merit of being shortest.

The faculty of moving the foot when we wish to do so, of recalling to mind past events, or of exercising our five senses; in short, any and all of our faculties will admit of no further or better explanation than that of Diafoirus.

But consider thought! say those who understand the whole secret. Thought, which distinguishes man from all animals besides!

Sanctius his animal, mentisque capacius altæ.

OVID'S Metamorph. book i. 76.

More holy man, of more exalted mind!

As holy as you like; it is on this subject, that of thought or mind, that Diafoirus is more triumphant than ever. All would reply in accordance with him,"Quia est in eo virtus pensativa quæ facit pensare." No one will ever develope the mysterious process by which he thinks.

The case we are considering, then, might be extended to everything in nature. I know not whether there may not be found in this profound and unfathomable gulf of mystery, an evidence of the existence of a supreme being. There is a secret in the originating or conservatory principles of all beings, from a pebble on the sea-shore to Saturn's Ring and the Milky Way. But how can there be a secret which no one knows? It would seem that some being must exist who can develope all.

Some learned men, with a view to enlighten our ignorance, tell us that we must form systems; that we shall thus at last find the secret out. But we have so long sought without obtaining any explanation, that disgust against farther search has very naturally succeeded. That, say they, is the mere indolence of philosophy: no; it is the rational repose of men who have

exerted themselves and run an active race in vain. And after all it must be admitted, that indolent philosophy is far preferable to turbulent divinity and metaphysical delusion.

FAITH.

SECTION I.

WHAT is faith? Is it to believe that which is evident? No. It is perfectly evident to my mind that there exists a necessary, eternal, supreme and intelligent being. This

is no matter of faith, but of reason. I have no merit in thinking that this eternal and infinite being, whom I consider as virtue, as goodness itself, is desirous that I should be good and virtuous. Faith consists in believing, not what seems true but what seems false to our understanding. The Asiatics can only by faith believe the journey of Mahomet to the seven planets, and the incarnations of the god Fo, of Vishnoo, Xaca, Brama, and Sommonocodom, &c. &c. They submit their understandings; they tremble to examine: wishing to avoid being either impaled or burnt, they say,"I believe."

We do not here intend the slightest allusion to the catholic faith. Not only do we revere it, but we possess it. We speak of the false lying faith of other nations of the world, of that faith which is not faith, and which consists only in words.

There is a faith for things that are merely astonishing and prodigious, and a faith for things contradictory and impossible.

Vishnoo became incarnate five hundred times; this is extremely astonishing, but it is not however physically impossible; for if Vishnoo possesses a soul, he may have transferred that soul into five hundred different bodies, with a view to his own felicity. The Indian, indeed, has not a very lively faith; he is not intimately and decidedly persuaded of these metamorphoses; but he will nevertheless say to his bonze, "I have faith; it is your will and pleasure that Vishnoo has undergone five hundred incarnations, which is worth to you an income of five hundred rupees: very well; you will inveigh against me, and denounce me, and ruin my trade if I have not faith; but I have faith, and here are ten rupees over and above for you." The Indian may swear to the bonze that he believes, without taking a false oath; for, after all, there is no demonstration that Vishnoo has not actually made five hundred visits to India.

But if the bonze requires him to believe what is contradictory or impossible, as that two and two make

five, or that the same body may be in a thousand different places, or that to be and not to be are precisely one and the same thing; in that case, if the Indian says he has faith, he lies; and if he swears that he believes, he commits perjury. He says, therefore, to the bonze, "My reverend father, I cannot declare that I believe in these absurdities, even though they should be worth to you an income of ten thousand rupees instead of five hundred."

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My son," the bonze answers, "give me twenty rupees, and God will give you grace to believe all that you now do not believe."

"But how can you expect or desire," rejoins the Indian," that God should do that by me which he cannot do even by himself? It is impossible that God should either perform or believe contradictions. I am very willing to say, in order to give you satisfaction, that I believe what is obscure, but I cannot say that I believe what is impossible. It is the will of God that we should be virtuous, and not that we should be absurd. I have already given you ten rupees; here are twenty more; believe in thirty rupees; be an honest man if you can, and do not trouble me any more."

It is not thus with Christians. The faith which they have for things which they do not understand is founded upon that which they do understand; they have grounds of credibility. Jesus Christ performed miracles in Galilee; we ought therefore to believe all that he said. In order to know what he said, we must consult the church. The church has declared the books which announce Jesus Christ to us to be authentic. We ought therefore to believe those books. Those books inform us, that he who will not listen to the church shall be considered as a tax-gatherer or a pagan; we ought therefore to listen to the church, that we may not be disgraced and hated like the farmers-general. We ought to submit our reason to it, not with infantile and blind credulity, but with a docile faith, such as reason itself would authorise. Such is christian faith, particularly the Roman faith, which is "the faith" par

VOL. III.

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excellence. The Lutheran, Calvinistic, or Anglican faith, is a wicked faith.*

SECTION II.

Divine faith, about which so much has been written, is evidently nothing more than incredulity brought under subjection; for we certainly have no other faculty than the understanding by which we can believe; and the objects of faith are not those of the understanding. We can believe only what appears to be true; and nothing can appear true but in one of the three following ways:-by intuition or feeling, as I exist, I see the sun; or by an accumulation of probability amounting to certainty, as there is a city called Constantinople; or by positive demonstration, as triangles of the same base and height are equal.

Faith, therefore, being nothing at all of this description, can no more be a belief, a persuasion, than it can be yellow or red. It can be nothing but the annihilation of reason, a silence of adoration at the contemplation of things absolutely incomprehensible. Thus, speaking philosophically, no person believes the Trinity; no person believes that the same body can be in a thousand places at once; and he who says, I believe these mysteries, will see, beyond the possibility of doubt, if he reflects for a moment on what passes in his mind, that these words mean no more than, I respect these mysteries; I submit myself to those who announce them. For they agree with me, that my reason, or their own reason, believe them not; but it is clear that if my reason is not persuaded, I am not persuaded. I and my reason cannot possibly be two different beings. It is an absolute contradiction that I should receive that as true which my understanding rejects as false. Faith, therefore, is nothing but submissive or deferential incredulity.

But why should this submission be exercised when

The humble docility of Voltaire was astonishing, and scarcely exceeded by that of Fenelon!-T.