324 CRITIQUES AND ADDHESSES. [xm. 



Leibnitz paints a true picture, and how far he is guilty 

 of a spiteful caricature of Newton's views in these pas- 

 sages ; and whether the beliefs which Locke is known 

 to have entertained are consistent with the conclusions 

 which may logically be drawn from some parts of his 

 works. It is undeniable that English philosophy in Leib- 

 nitz's time had the general character which he ascribes 

 to it. The phenomena of nature were held to be re- 

 solvable into the attractions and the repulsions of particles 

 of matter ; all knowledge was attained through the senses; 

 the mind antecedent to experience was a tabula rasa. 

 In other words, at the commencement of the eighteenth 

 century, the character of speculative thought in England 

 was essentially sceptical, critical, and materialistic. Why 

 " materialism" should be more inconsistent with the 

 existence of a Deity, the freedom of the will, or the 

 immortality of the soul, or with any actual or possible 

 system of theology, than " idealism/' I must declare 

 myself at a loss to divine. But in the year 1700 all the 

 world appears to have been agreed, Tertullian notwith- 

 standing, that materialism necessarily leads to very 

 dreadful consequences. And it was thought that it 

 conduced to the interests of religion and morality to 

 attack the materialists with all the weapons that came 

 to hand. Perhaps the most interesting controversy 

 which arose out of these questions is the wonderful 

 triangular duel between Dodwell, Clarke, and Anthony 

 Collins, concerning the materiality of the soul, and 

 what all the disputants considered to be the necessary 

 consequence of its materiality its natural mortality. I 

 do not think that anyone can read the letters which 

 passed between Clarke and Collins, without admitting 

 that Collins, who writes with wonderful power and close- 

 ness of reasoning, has by far the best of the argument, 

 so far as the possible materiality of the soul goes ; and 



