312 NEW SYSTEM 



seeing that the common opinion is inconceivable, held 

 that we are aware of the qualities of bodies, because God 

 makes thoughts arise in the soul on occasion of the 

 motions of matter ; and, on the other hand, when our 

 soul wishes to move the body, they hold that it is God 

 who moves the body for it. And as communication of 

 motions also appeared to them inconceivable, they were 

 of opinion that God gives motion to a body on occasion 

 of the motion of another body. This is what is called 

 the system of occasional causes, which has been brought 

 into wide repute by the excellent reflexions of the author 

 of the Recherche de la Verite 57 . 



13. It must be admitted that they have gone far into 

 the difficulty in telling us what cannot take place ; but 

 they do not appear to have removed it by their explana- 

 tion of what actually does happen. It is quite true that 

 one created substance has, in the strict metaphysical 

 sense, no real influence upon another, and that all things 

 and all their reality are continually produced by the 

 power [vertu^ of God. But to solve problems it is not 

 enough to make use of a general cause and to introduce 

 what is called Deus ex machina. For to do this, without 

 offering any other explanation which can be derived from 

 the order of secondary causes, is just to have recourse *to 

 miracle. Ill philosophy w r e must endeavour to give a 

 reason for things by showing how they are carried out 

 by the Divine wisdom in conformity with the notion of 

 the matter we are dealing with 58 . 



14. Accordingly, being obliged to admit that it is im- 



their union, for it would then be necessary to conceive both as 

 a single being and at the same time as two different things, which 

 .is a contradiction.' (Euvres (ed. Cousin), vol. ix. p. 132. 



57 Arnold Geulincx (1625-1669) was the real founder of Occa- 

 sionalism. The first part of his Ethica appeared in 1665, while 

 Malebranche's great work was published in 1674. See Introduction, 

 Part ii. pp. 42 sqq. Cf. Kuno Fischer, Descartes and his School, bk. iii. 

 ch. 3. 



58 We must not make a vague reference to the Divine wisdom, 

 but must show how it is present in particular departments of 

 experience. 



