SCIENCE AND REVOLUTION 



tically received by all friends of enlightenment, 

 especially in France. He furnished the first 

 philosophical proofs of the fact that all human 

 ideas are due to the functions of the senses, and 

 thus completed Baconian materialism which Hob- 

 bes had systematized. 



Locke's work came at a time when metaphysics 

 had gradually lost its touch with the sciences that 

 had once given it a certain authority. While 

 mathematics, physics, zoology, astronomy, chem- 

 istry, and other exact sciences, made themselves 

 more and more independent, metaphysics retained 

 nothing but speculations and a mystical belief in 

 celestial things. But when the last great meta- 

 physicians of the 1 7th century, Malebranche and 

 Arnauld, died, worldly affairs were beginning to 

 absorb public interest to the exclusion of super- 

 natural speculations. To the same extent did 

 materialism gain favor among Frenchmen. 



IX. NATURAL PHILOSOPHY IN FRANCE. 



With the beginning of the i8th century, we see 

 the French champions of enlightenment engaged 

 in open war against metaphysics, theology, and 



