78 Sir William Hamilton's Fragments of Fhilosoplty . 



to the known influence of many other systems which have existed in his- 

 tory :— 



" We shall now make one concluding observation. This school (that 

 of^progress), placing- its point of departure in the social action, is evi- 

 dentlj' on the fair way to success and popularity : it rests on the most 

 active interest of our times — the political. At no epoch, in fact, has 

 philosojjhy (whatever definition may have elsewhere been given to what 

 bears this name), enjoyed any celebrity, si)lendour, or power, but by its 

 alliances. In the times of antiquity it never emerged from the schools 

 till it began to interfere, by its practical action, with public and private 

 morals, in the forms of Ej^icurism, Stoicism, and Mysticism. In the mid- 

 dle ages it had no influence on the j)ublic mind but through the channels 

 of theology and religion. After the Cartesian reform it identified itself 

 with the scientific movement, and was there almost entirely absorbed. 

 The philosophers of these times were Copernicus, Descartes, Leibnitz, 

 Newton, Galileo, Bacon, Gassendi, Huj gens ; to these may be added 

 the Academy of Sciences of Paris, and the Hoyal Society of London. In 

 the eighteenth century, philosophy introduced itself by every possible 

 way into tlie political order ; it is the sign, the name, the standard, and 

 the lever of the revolutionary movement, in the midst of which we still 

 live. Its three great philosophers are expounders of j)ul)lic law ; one 

 writes the Essay on the Genius and Manners of Nations ; the other the 

 Spirit of the Laws ; and the last, the Social Contract. Then come Tur- 

 got, Condorcct, that is to say, the Economists and the Constituents- The 

 Theological scliool also mingles with the spirit of the times, but it is by 

 way of reaction ; it is of no influence but by resisting. The Eclectic 

 school abandoned its active part too early and completely, by refusing or 

 neglecting to resolve the social questions, and thereby compromised not 

 only its influence but even ,its existence. The St Slmonian school, on 

 the contrary, and all Its off-shoots, Fourierism, and its connections, 

 again took up (under forms, and by means, which it is useless to attempt 

 to appreciate) the inheritance of the preceding age. Thus, through all, 

 and even in spite of all their deviations, absurdities, and even follies, 

 these sects have struck deep roots ; they have warmed the imaginations, 

 modified the spirit of economical and political science, filled the minds 

 of statesmen and governments ; thej' have given a colour to general li- 

 terature, and even introduced into language new words which have almost 

 ceased to be barbarous. 



" Up to the present time, in truth, all these doctrines have been rather 

 borne up bj- the spirit of the times than supported by their philosophical 

 value ; they have found no representatives but in minds less original than 

 eccentric, and have been most frequentlj' produced under the extra-scien- 

 tific forms of mysticism and illuminism. In a literary point of view, they 

 have given birth only to works void of taste, infected with neologism, 

 and in which a false originality is an unequivocal sjmptom of want of 

 pow<»r. In gener.ll, the resourbcs of mind, erudition, reasoning, and 



