1807.] Vi oltaire’s 
French. D/’Olivet found every thing in 
Cicero, as Mallebranche faw every thing 
in the Supreme Being: however, L think 
his extracts from Cicero are very ele- 
gantly tranflated. I do not know that 
his Detached Thoughts will do much in 
time to come; they are pithy, but they 
are mere commonplace. They se 
that precifion, that brilliancy, which i 
is neceflary for maxims to have, ia nen 
to their making an impreilion on the 
PaeMbPys Cicero was di ffufe; and fuch 
prolixity is neceflary in popular fpeaking, 
and addvefles to a multitude of hearers. 
We cannot form a Rochetowcault out of 
a Roman advocate, an orator of Rome. 
Ja detached thoughts there is a neceility 
for falt, fizure, and laconicifm: Cicero 
does net appear to me in his right place 
in them, 
iad. Denys.—Uncle, you have made. 
Ro mention yet of philofophers, meta- 
phyficians, and {ceptics. 
Volt——My dear niece, there are many 
fmall wits, without induftry, who conceal 
their ignorance under the matk of Pyrr- 
honifia. Scepticilm requires a cultivated 
genius. Defcartes, by advancing too 
fur, tound huntelf in the region of poth- 
bilities. -From the eloquent Plato to the 
profound Leibnifz, of whom I thall pre- 
fently fpeak, all the mctaphyficians ap- 
pear to me to be like thofe curious 
travellers who have vilited the feraglio of 
the Grand Signior ; they have feen eu- 
nuchs there, and pretend to have con- 
verfed with them; and proceed, to in- 
form us about the favourite fultana, 
whilft, m fact, the grand Ggnior has no 
favourite fultana at all. 
Friend —I do not like that decifive 
tone in which Defcartes delivers his Pairy 
Tales. y 
Volt. —You are very juilly difpleafed 
with itr but 1 beg you net to find fault 
with his algebra, nor his geometrical 
calculations, for he gave them up alto- 
gether in his works. He has buiit an 
enchanted caftle, without condefcending 
to take a fingle dimenfion. He was one 
of the vreatett geometricians of the time 
he lived i in; yet he gave’up his geo- 
metry, and even his geometrical fpirit, 
for the fpirit of invencion and a fyftem 
of romance. It is this which ought to 
leffen him in our opinion; yet, toour 
fhame, it is this to which he owes his 
fuceefs. It mutt be owned, that his 
phylics are all a tifue of errors; falfe 
laws of motion, vortices, which have 
been proved impoifible, are to be found 
im his fyitem, which Hayyens has labour- 
ed in vain to boliter up andamend. His 
s Literary Confefions. 
335 
anatomy is falfe, his theory of light er- 
ronevus; he has magnetic ‘matter rune 
ning in channels,’ a thang iunpeliible ; 
three elements to be placed im the Ara- 
bian Nights Entertainment; no obfer- 
vations of the courle of nature, no dif 
covery.—This is ail that is to be found in 
Defcartes. 
friend.—There was living in his time 
a Galileo, who was a real inventor. He 
attacked Aritotie with peometry and 
expernnental philofophy, whilft Deicar:es 
only oppoled uew Chitneras to antiquat- 
ed reveries. 
“ult.—You are right: but this Galileo 
d'd not take upon himifelf to make a 
world, as Defcartes did; he contented 
hiumnfelf with examining the univerfe, 
There was no inpofition on the great 
vulgar, or the finall, in that. Defcartes 
was an egregious quack, Galileo was a 
great philofopher. But I promifed’ to 
fay fomething about Leibnitz. That faid 
Leibnitz is a pleafant kind: of doétor : 
he fays, in his Micellanies, that Pafcal’s 
melancholy led his reafon aftray at lait; 
and -he fays it rather harthly too. And, 
after all, what is there furprifing in the 
matter?—is it to be wondered at, if a 
man like Patcal, of a delicate habit of 
body, rathér difpofed to melancholy, 
fhould from the eifeéts of a bad regimen 
lefe his fenfes? Such adiforder is no 
more a fubject for humihation and won- 
der, than the liead-ach, or a fever. If 
the great Pafcal had an attack ef fucha 
nature, he was a Samfun loling his 
firencth. Have. you remarked in his 
works, where he fays our life is very 
fhort, compared to that of a ftas or 
raven? iis murfe had told him, TI fup- 
pote, that ttays live three hundred years, 
and ravens nine hundred. Hehod’s nuvie, 
too, in all probability, bad told him the 
fame thing, But our doétor had oly to 
alk the quefiton of fome huntfinan, 
who would have told him that the lite of 
a itag does not exceed twenty years. 
He is highly ridiculous, too, where he 
tells us that we are wrershert This is 
mania, abfolute frenzy: { hace a quack 
that would make me tbeleve [ am fick, 
in order to vend his pills. Keep your 
pills, my friend, and let ime enjoy my 
prefent ftate of health. Bat, doctor, 
why do you luad me with Ablve lan= 
cuage? {s it becaufe I preferve my health, 
ahve do not take your Panacea? 
This is my opinion of Doétor Le:h- 
nitz. He labours to prove that the foul 
is immaterial: | am willing to believe 
his 1 is fo; but, in truth, he gives us very 
poor toBES. to confit” it. He wonld 
give 
