OF THE SPIRIT. 403 



fleeted upon the plain evidences within their own 

 consciousness ; it was an appeal to every individual 

 thinking person. With de Lamennais it meant rather an 

 appeal to what was common to all persons whether this 

 consensus be established by reflection or unconsciously 

 adopted and admitted in practice. In fact, in the term 

 " common-sense," we may say that Eeid's school laid 

 emphasis on the word " sense," on immediate evidence, 

 de Lamennais on the word " common " — i.e., on that 

 which is possessed by or belongs to every one. It is a 

 reversion to the standard of the more comprehensive 

 mind of the classical period of Christendom ; quod semper, 

 quod ubique, quod ah omnibus. 



In this formula of the appeal to common-sense we 

 have the beginning of a doctrine which has, since the 

 time of de Lamennais, been introduced from many sides 

 into the discussion of this question. We may express 

 this by saying that the authority appealed to is not that 

 of a single person, of a single truth, or of an isolated 

 argument, however imposing or convincing such may at 

 times appear, but that it is an appeal to a body of beliefs 

 or of thought which through universality, coherence, and 

 stability commands our respect and assent. As such, 

 this view opposes everything that is detached, isolated, 

 and purely individual; it appeals to the community of 

 men and the continuity of opinions, not to individual 

 thinkers or subjective convictions however rigid and 

 acute the logic of the latter may seemingly be. In fact, 

 de Lamennais maintains that individualism and self- 

 reliance in matters of knowledge and faith must lead 

 ultimately to scepticism, uncertainty, and indifference. 



