ON HUMAx\ UNDERSTANDING. 



349 



nately not alive ; that it was obvious to himself that he existed for and during 

 the time that he thought, itched, or ate, but that he had no proof of existence 

 as soon as these were over. 



But I have said, that M. Des Cartes's philosophy consists not only in de- 

 manding proofs where no proofs are necessary, and where the truisms are so 

 clear as to render it ludicrous to ask for them, but in taking for granted pro- 

 positions that evidently demand proof. And I now allude to his whole doc- 

 trine of innate ideas — of axioms or principles planted in the mind by the hand 

 of nature herself, and which are evidently intended to supply the place of the 

 intelligible world of Plato and Aristotle. 



Of these I have only produced a small sample, and it is not necessary to 

 bring more to market. Let us state his innate idea of a God. It is, I admit, 

 a very reverential, correct, and perfect one, and does him credit as a theolo- 

 gist : but I am not at present debating with him as a theologist, but as a logi- 

 cian. It is in truth owing to its very perfection that I object to it ; for there 

 is strong ground to suspect, notwithstanding all his care to the contrary, that 

 he has obtained it from induction, rather than from impulse ; from an open 

 creed, than from a latent principle. If such an idea be innate to him, there 

 can be no question that it must be also innate to every one else. Now, it so 

 happens that the ideas of other men, in different parts of the world, wander 

 from his own idea as far as the north pole from the south. There are 

 some barbarians, we are told, so benighted as to have no idea of a God at all. 

 Such, as Mr. Marsden,his Majesty's principal chaplain in New South Wales, 

 informs us, are the very barbarous aboriginal tribes of that vast settlement. 

 " They have no knowledge," says he, " of any religion, false or true." There 

 are others, whose idea of a God has only been formed in the midst of gloom 

 and terror : and who hence, with miserable ignorance, represent him, in their 

 wooden idols, under the ugliest and most hideous character their gross 

 imagination can suggest. Atheism, in the strictest sense of the term, is at 

 this moment, and has been for nearly a thousand years at least, the established 

 belief of the majority, or rather of the whole Burman empire ; the funda- 

 mental doctrine of M'hose priesthood consists in a denial that there is any 

 such power as an eternal independent essence in the universe ; and that at 

 this moment there is any God whatever ; Guadama, their last Boodh, or deity^ 

 having, by his meritorious deeds, long since reached the supreme good of 

 Nighar, or annihilation ; which is the only ultimate reward in reserve for the 

 virtuous among mankind ;* while the ideas of the wisest philosophers of 

 Greece appear to have fallen far short of the bright exemplar of M. Des Cartes. 



That Des Cartes himself was possessed of this idea at the time he wrote,, 

 no man can have any doubt ; but what proof have we that he possessed it 

 INNATELY, and that he found it among the original furniture of his mind 1 



In like manner, he tells us, that his knowledge of matter is derived from 

 the same unerring source ; that its idea exists within him, and that this idea 



* The most authentic account of the tenets of Boodhism which have of late years been communicated^ 

 to the world, are those furnished by Mr. Judson, an American missionary, who for tiie last ten or twelve 

 years has been stationary at Rangoon or Ava, has acquired an accurate knowledge of the Burman and; 

 Pali, or vulgar and sacred tongue, and has translated the whole of the New Testament into the former. 

 His very interesting account of the mission of himself and his colleagues, as well as of the national creed 

 of this extraordinary people, is to be found in his correspondence with the American Baptist Missionary 

 Board, as also in " An Account of the American Baptist Mission to the Burman Empire, in a Series of 

 Letters addressed to a Gentleman in London, by A. H. Judson, 8vo. Lond. 1823." The whole universe,, 

 according to the principles of Boodhism, is governed by fate, which has no more essential existence than 

 chance. A Boodh, or god, is occasionally produced, and appears on earth, the last of whom was Gua- 

 dama. But gods and men must equally follow the law or order of fate; they must die, and ihey nmst 

 suffer in a future state according to the sins they have committed on earth ; and, when this penance has 

 been completed, they reach alike the supreme good of Nigbar, or utter annihilation. Guadama, their last 

 deity, many hundred years ago reached this state of final beatitude, and another deity is soon expected to 

 make his appearance. An eternal self-existent being is, in the opinion of the Boodhists, an utter impoesi- 

 bilily, and they hear of such a doctrine with horror. When Mr. Jud.son had obtained an audience of' the 

 Burman emperor in his palace at Ava, to solicit protection and toleration, his petition was first read, and 

 then a little tract, containing the chief doctrines of Chri^tianity, printed in the Burman tongue, put into 

 the emperor's hands. " He held the tract," says Mr. Judson, " long enough to read the first two sentences, 

 which assert that there is one eternal God, who is independent of the incidents of mortality ; and that, 

 beside him, there is no god ; and then, with an air of indifference, perhaf s of disdain, he dashed it dowi». 

 to the ground.— Our fate was decided;" — lb. p. 231. 



