ooO 



judgment; -while, on the other hand^ arises the idea of motion 

 with its subordinate laws, true both to nature and to the life of 

 man_, the highest product of the scientific and pure reason and 

 the noblest generalization the world has yet known, because it 

 is the only one that neither limits nor enslaves. 



15. The celebrated Leibnitz advanced under the guidance of 

 'SI. HuYgens still further on this road. He savs that M. Huygens 

 made him understand that monads or simple substances are 

 the only true substances. I found then/^ he says "that their 

 nature consists in force, and that it was thus necessary to con- 

 ceive them after the notion we have of souls." (I) " ^laterial 

 atoms/^ he further explains, are contrary to reason, seeing that 

 tliey are composed of parts. Those are only substantial atoms, 

 that is to say, real units, absolutely without parts, which are the 

 principles of action and the last elements in the analysis of sub- 

 stances. They may be called metaphysical points. They have 

 something vital in them and a kind of perception 



16. There exists at the present moment a strong counter-eddy 

 of thought, carrying us back from whatever had been supposed to 

 be learnt as to the constitution of matter, and threatening to 

 land many of the votaries of speculative science in the nihilism 

 of Eastern philosophy. This tendency is referred to in a paper 



on Darwinism and Theology,^^ by Edward Fry, in the Spectator 

 of September 21st^ 187.2. The writer says, " I have no fear even 

 of the tendencies of modern science. I may read it wrongly (as 

 I know that I read it little and ignorantly), but to me its ten- 

 dencies seem towards a sublime spirituality, towards the belief 

 that all matter is but force, and all force is but mind."' 



17. This tendency to '''sublime spirituality " is well illustrated 

 in the most advanced school of modern Germany. I find in 

 the Eevue Scientifique of 7th September, 1872, under the head 

 Une Philosophie nouvelle en Allemagne, that the origin of the 

 school appears to have been in the writings of Schopenhauer, 

 who published in 1819 his great work, entitled The IForld 

 considered as Representation and Ifill. He says: ^^I have 

 had the happiness of being initiated in the Vedas, a great 

 benefit in my eyes ; for this age is, according to me, destined to 

 receive from the Sanscrit literature an impulsion equal to that 

 which the sixteenth century received from the renaissance of 

 the Greeks.^^ It is easy to trace in his notions the influence of 

 the speculations of Buddhism. Indeed, he was at so little pains 

 to conceal the source of his inspiration, that he obtained at 

 great expense an image of Buddha, which "he showed with 

 pride and, perhaps, with malice, to his visitors; " one of whom, 

 SI. Foucher, relates these circumstances. In this Indian 

 philosophy everything is 7naya, illusion; the world is a dream. 



