1825.}.- 
Nothing is more hidden than the 
path.of genius in thediscovery of truth! 
It commonly arrives at it, almost with- 
out leaving a vestige of its course.— 
Searcely' ‘any thing ‘systematic or’ well- 
confiected: is found in some works of 
high pretension, more than the artificial 
a laboured division which the author 
has’adopted,’ more emphatically to ex- 
press’ a particular result :—that natural 
and pleasing arrangement, by which we 
atrive to’the happiest truths, is over- 
looked! Thus, while the efforts of talent 
to'express ‘its ideas are well-known, its 
manner’ of obtaining them is quite un- 
known ; and it is as difficult to appre- 
ciate the value of the clothing of a 
noble thought, as to determine what is 
to be referred to mere chance, or to the 
influence of luminous method. 
Descartes alone, affords an exception 
to this observation. Endowed with de- 
cisive enérgy of character, he instantly 
perceived the utter uncertainty of all 
his’ acquisitions—a glance that shook 
him to his inmost marrow! — but a 
noble enthusiasm, which prompted him 
in the quest of truth, quickly urged him 
to'take that only mean which can have 
attraction for one who is truly under 
this influence. Without one moment’s 
hesitation, he rejected all that the labour 
of years had taught him — disengaging 
himself completely from that system of 
ideal existence of which he‘had, here- 
tofore, been a strenuous supporter ; and, 
with unequalled frankness, he again took 
that. starting-post at which nature, un- 
sophisticated and unshackled, had ori- 
gaially placed him. By this step, the 
yoldhess of which is unexampled in the 
history of man, he undertook, not to re- 
arfange, but to re-compose his ideas: 
and, that ‘he might be entirely un- 
shackled by doubt, with firm and relent- 
less determination, he effaced all re- 
collection of that system which had 
placed him tottering on the very brink 
of total ‘vacuity. However, he re- 
recoiled not. The rectitude and in- 
tegrity of his heart prompted a kind of 
provisional’ morality (morale par pro- 
vision) by which he might be guided 
during the interregnum to which he 
had himself condemned his reason: for, 
could he have wandered so long in dark-~ 
néss, and not have been dashed against 
inevitable rocks, before he could dis- 
cover the solitary guardian-star “by 
which he might be guided into peace 
and safety? 
This was evincing an uncommon de- 
Philosophy of Descartes. 
103°, 
eree of courage, but the principal mar-’ 
vel did not consist. in this. The uni-’ 
verse is an immeasurable sphere, of 
which the centre is every where—the cir- 
cumference no where. Man, who finds, 
without any concurrence of his’ own 
will, that he is one of its inhabitants,’ 
goes about hither and thither, uncon- 
scious'where his first steps are directed: 
but the difficulty is, having a perception’ 
of the “ whereabout,” then to choose 
the path that will lead, undeviatingly, 
to the end desired. Where, in such a 
case, should he direct his steps, and-who 
could guarantee to him such power of 
gradual advancement that he should’ 
never go astray, in all the windings of 
this long labyrinth? ,? 
Descartes, however, was undisturbed? 
On every side, his rapid glance pierced: 
through the clouds and mists which,’ 
hitherto, had veiled his sight ; and, with 
confident alacrity, he seized upon the 
first emanation of real knowledge, and 
cried, as in a moment of brilliant inspi- 
ration, Je pense, donc je suis /—I think, 
then I exist ! 
Sublime conception, which, as a ray 
of trembling light, affords the wandering 
traveller agrateful but imperfect guidance 
over rugged and! hideous precipices !—' 
And it is the effort of no ordinary- 
intelligence, to enter the very depths of 
analysis, and deduce general principles 
from the arguments of long calculation : 
—it is the triumph of genius, whose 
mighty starts attain to, as it were; pri- 
meval truth, upon the very confines of 
nature, without the aid of such myste- - 
rious guidance. 
But stay :—let us here examine, more’ 
precisely, the character of that doctrine 
of which Descartes may be said'to have 
sought the deep foundations.—When he 
used those memorable words, “ I think, 
then I am,” did he pronounce them in 
accordance with experimental fact, or 
rational induction? Let us hope that 
common experience, inward, instant, 
luminous and conscious, will do away 
with the necessity of proving so positive’ 
a fact, which, in short, nothing can pro- 
perly explain, because nothing precedes 
it: itis, in truth, itself the evidence of 
its own reality—unerringly existing in 
every breast: which no one, seriously, 
can refuse to acknowledge. The scep- 
ticism of Pyrrho, who, unreservedly, 
says, I know nothing ;—or of Montaigne, 
who, with more delicate address, ‘asks, 
What do I know?—do' not contradict’ 
this truth: Even the madman, .who 
traces 
