2 Claude Pajon, 162(5-1685, a French Protestant theologian, Professor of Theology at Saumer, 1666, and later pastor at Orleans. Pajon taught that in conversion the Holy Spirit did not act immediately or irresistibly upon the heart, but that the soul was itself active in the work of salvation, allowing itself to be convinced by the efficacious word of truth found in Scripture with which the Spirit's influence was intimately united. His views were opposed by both Lutherans and Reformed. For further account of him, c/. Alex. Schweizer, Central-Dorjmen d. Reform. Kirch?, 2 vols., 1854-185(5, Vol. 2, pp. 5<>4-(!(;3, and in Herzog, Realencyclop. 2d ed., Leipzig, 1883, Vol. 11, pp. 1(51- 1(53; W. Gass, Gesch. d.prot. Dnr/matik, 2,.150 xq. — TR.
3 Cf. Feller, Otium Hanoveranum, No. LXXXVIII., pp. 181-183 (Dntens, fi, 596 LEIBNITZ'S CRITIQUE OF LOCKE [BK. iv CHAPTER XIX OF ENTHUSIASM § 1. Ph. [Would to God that all theologians and St. Augus tine himself had always practised the maxim expressed in this passage.] But men think that the dogmatic spirit is an indication of their zeal for the truth, while it is wholly the contrary. We love the truth in reality only in proportion as we love to examine the proofs which make it what it is. And when we judge hastily we are always pressed by less sincere motives. § 2. The spirit of authority is not one of the less common motives, and a certain satisfaction it has in its own reveries is another motive which causes enthusiasm to spring up. § 3. This is the name which is given to the failing of those who believe an immediate revelation when it is not grounded in reason. § 4. And as we may say that reason is a natural revelation of which God is the author, just as he is the author of nature, we may also say that revelation is a super natural reason, i.e. a reason extended upon the basis of new discoveries emanating directly from God. But these discov eries suppose that we have the means of discerning them, which is reason itself; and to desire to proscribe reason in order to make way for revelation would be to pluck out the eyes the better to see the satellites of Jupiter through a tele scope. § 5. The source of enthusiasm is that an immediate revelation is more convenient and shorter than the long and difficult process of reasoning which is not always followed by a happy result. Men have been seen in all ages whose melan choly mingled with devotion, united with the good opinion they have had of themselves, has made them believe that they had an altogether different intercourse with God from other men. They suppose he has promised it to them and believe themselves his people preferably to others. § 0. Their fancy becomes an illumination and a divine authority, and their plans are an infallible direction from heaven, which they are obliged to follow. § 7. This view has produced great results and caused great evils, for a man acts more vigorously when on. xix] ON HUMAN UNDERSTANDING 597 lie follows his own impulses and when the opinion of a divine authority is sustained by his inclinations. § 8. It is difficult to draw him therefrom, because this pretended certainty with out proof Hatters his vanity and love for that which is extraor dinary. Fanatics compare their opinions to sight and feeling. They see the divine light as we see that of the sun. at noon without needing the twilight of their reason to show it to them. § 9. They are certain because they are certain, and their per suasion is right because it is strong, for this is the result to which their figurative language reduces itself. § 10. ]>ut as there are two perceptions, that of the proposition and that of the revelation, we may ask them where is clearness. If it is in the sight of the proposition, what good is revelation? It must then be in the feeling of revelation. But how can they see that it is God who reveals and not a will-of-the-wisp which leads them around this circle: this is a revelation because I believe it strongly, and I believe it because it is a revelation. § 11. Is there anything more suited to throw one into error than to take the imagination for a guide? § 12. St. Paul had great zeal when he persecuted the Christians and did not allow himself to be mistaken. We know that the devil has had martyrs, and if it is sufficient to be well persuaded we shall not be able to distinguish the delusions of Satan from the inspira tions of the Holy Spirit. § 14. It is then the reason Avhich makes known the truth of revelation. § 15. And if our belief proved it, it would be the circle of which I just spoke. The holy men who received the revelations of God had external signs which persuaded them of the truth of the inner light. Moses saw a bush which burned without being consumed, and heard a voice from the midst of the bush, and God, in order to give him more assurance concerning his mission when he sent him to Egypt to deliver his brethren, made use of the miracle of the rod changed into a serpent. Gideon was sent by an angel to deliver the people of Israel from the yoke of the Mid- iaiiites; yet he demanded a sign in order to be convinced that this commission was given him on the part of God. § 1(5. I do not, however, deny that God sometimes illumines the minds of men, in order to make them understand certain important truths or to lead them to good acts, by the immediate influence and assistance of the Holy Spirit without any extraordinary 598 LEIBNITZ'S CRITIQUE OF LOCKE [UK. iv sign accompanying this influence. But in these cases also we have reason and Scripture, two infallible rules for judging of these illuminations; for if they agree with these rules we run at least no risk in regarding them as inspired of God, although it is not perhaps an immediate revelation.
Th. Enthusiasm was at the beginning a good term. And as the sophism properly indicates an exercise of wisdom, enthusi asm signifies that there is a divinity in us. Est Deus in nobis.1 Socrates maintained that a god or daemon 2 gave him internal warnings, so that enthusiasm would be a divine instinct. But men having consecrated their passions, fancies, dreams, and even their anger as something divine, enthusiasm began to sig nify a mental disturbance attributed to the influence of some divinity, which is supposed to be in those who are smitten there with; for the soothsayers, male and female, showed a mental derangement, when their god seized them, as the Cuma>an Sibyl in Vergil.3 Since then we attribute it to those who be lieve without foundation that their movements come from God. Nisus in the same poet thinking himself pressed by I know not what impulse to a dangerous enterprise, in which he per ished with his friend, proposed it to him in these terms full of a reasonable doubt: — Di ne liunc ardorem mentibus addunt, Euryale, an sua cuique Deus fit dira cupido? 4 1 Ovid, Fasti, G, 5: " Est Deus in nobis, agitante calescimus illo." — TR.
2 On the dasmon of Socrates, cf. Zeller, Philos. <L Gricch., II., 1 [Vol. 3], 73-91, 4th ed., Leipzig, 1880; J. S. Blackie, Four Phases of Morals, pp. 125- 127, New York, 1872; H. Jackson, "On the Sainoviov of Socrates" in the "Journal of Philology," V., and article " Socrates," Encyclop. Brit., 9th ed., Vol. 22, p. 24i> (Amer. reprint). — TR.
3 Cf. Vergil, ASnehl, 6, 49: " Et rabie fera corda tument." The view here mentioned by Leibnitz, that persons gifted with inspiration or enthusiasm were also affected with some derangement or disturbance of the ordinary men tal processes, was current in one form or another throughout all antiquity, and had its influence, through the contact of Greek thought with Chris tianity, in shaping the Christian doctrine of inspiration. Cf. Plato, Phaedriis, 244, Jowett's trans., 2d ed., 1875, 2, 121, 3d ed., 1892, 1, 449-450; Ion, 533-534, Jowett, 2d ed., 1, 247-248, 3d ed., 1, 501-503; Thnasiis, 71-72, Jowett, 2d ed., 3, G54-65fi, 3d ed., 3, 492-494; the Stoic view, Zeller, Pliitos. d. GriecJt., III., 1 [Vol. 5], 336 sq., Plutarch, ibid., III., 2 [Vol. 6], 193 sq., Philo, 414 sq., Plo- tinus, (ill sq.; Pfleiderer, Eeligionsphilosophie, 2d ed., 1884,2, 339 sq., Eug.
CH. xix] OX IIUMAX UNDERSTANDING 599 He ceased not to follow this instinct although he knew not whether it came from God or from an unfortunate desire to distinguish himself. But if he had been successful, he would not have failed to acquire authority in another case and to think himself impelled by some divine power. The enthusi asts of the present think that they receive also from God the dogmas which they observe. The Quakers belong to this per suasion, and Barclay, their first systematic author, maintains that they find in themselves a certain light which is made known by itself.1 But why call that light which reveals noth ing? I know that there are some persons of this disposition of mind who see sparks and even something more luminous, but this image of material light excited when their minds are aroused gives no light to the mind. Some idiots with a restless imagination form conceptions which they had not before; they are in a condition to say fine or at least very animated things in their opinion; they admire themselves and make others admire this fertility which passes for inspiration. This ad vantage comes to them largely from a vivid imagination which passion rouses and from an excellent memory which has well retained the methods of speech of the prophetic books which the reading or discourse of others has rendered familiar to them. Antoinette de Bourignon made use of the facility she had in speaking and writing as a proof of her divine mission.2 I know a visionary who based his divine mission upon the tal- 1 Of. Leibnitz's letter to Thos. Burnett, July 17-27, 1696; Gerharrtt, Leibniz, pinion. Schrift., 3, 184. On the doctrine of the " inner light," the immediate revelation of the Spirit of God in each individual soul, " the light that lighten- eth every man," — the most characteristic doctrine of the Quakers, — cf. Robert Barclay, 1648-1690, An Apology for the True Christian Divinity, Prop. II., Of Immediate Revelation; and the excellent account of Bancroft, Hist, of the U. S., chap. 2.">, Vol. 2, pp. 78.s*?., Centenary ed., Boston, 1876. — TR.
2 Antoinette Bourignon, 1616-1680, an enthusiast whose religious doctrines made considerable stir in her lifetime and for a short time after in Holland and Scotland, but have long ceased to have any influence and are now almost wholly forgotten. Her complete works in French appeared at Amsterdam, 1680, 1!) vols.. 8vo; 1717, 21 vols., 8vo, with a life of the author by Pierre Poiret, 1646-171'.), a Calvinistic minister and famous mystic, who became her disciple, edited her works, and attempted to reduce to system her vague reveries in his (Economic df la nature, Amsterdam, 1686, 21 vols., 8vo. Her prophetic views were expounded in her Traite de I'aveuglement des homines ((Euvres, ed. 1686, Vol. 15), her La lumiere du monde (ibid., Vol. 7), and her De la himiere tier n> teiii'brcK (ibid., Vol. 4), the last work being "a collection of letters, with a large explanation of Matt. 24 and 25 "; Eng. trans. The Light of the 000 LEIBNITZ'S CRITIQUE OF LOCKE [BK. iv ents he had in speaking and praying aloud almost an entire day without ceasing and without becoming exhausted. There are some persons who, after having practised austerities or after a state of sadness, taste a peace and consolation in the soul which enraptures them, and they find therein so much de light that they believe it to be an effect of the Holy Spirit. It is true that the contentment they find in considering the great ness and goodness of God, in the accomplishment of his will, in the practice of the virtues, is a grace of God and one of the greatest; but it is not always a grace which needs a new super natural aid, as many of these good people maintain. Not long since there was a young lady very wise in everything else, who believed from her youth that she spoke with Jesus Christ and was his wife in a wholly peculiar manner. Her mother, to whom this was related, was a little given to enthusiasm, but the daughter having commenced early had gone very much farther. Her satisfaction and joy was unspeakable, her wis dom appeared in her conduct, and her intelligence in her discourse. The thing went, however, so far that she received letters addressed to our Lord and she sent them back sealed as she received them with a reply which sometimes appeared appropriate and always reasonable. But finally she ceased to receive them from fear of making too much disturbance. In Spain she would have been another St. Theresa. But all per sons who have similar visions do not conduct themselves in the same way. There are some who seek to form a sect, and even to make trouble: and England furnishes a strange proof of this.1 When these persons act in good faith it is difficult to World, London, 1696; The Light risen in Darkness, London, 1703. Leibnitz refers to her in a fragment, Sur V esprit Sectaire, 1697, cf. Dutens, 1, 740. For further account, cf. J. C. Adelung, Oesch. d. mensch. Narrheit, Leipzig, 1785- 1789, 7 vols., 16mo, Vol. 5, pp. 245-391; Gottfried Arnold, Kirchen u. Ketzerhis- torie, Frankt'ort-on-the-Main, 1729, Theil. III., Cap. XVI., Vol. 2, pp. 15:5-176, Th. IV., Sect. III., Num. XVII., Vol. 2, pp. 1065-1089; Wetzer u. Welte, Kirchenlexicon, Vol. 2, pp. 1167-1170, ed. 1883. — TR.
1 Leibnitz here refers to the Independents, who, arising in obscurity in Eng land in the reign of Elizabeth and gradually gaining in numbers and influence as a result of the persecution to which they were subject at the hands of the established Church and the State, and of their success in founding the New England States, came to the front in the time of the Revolution and changed at length the political as well as the religious life of England, and became a powerful and controlling force in the life and institutions of the American people. In their fundamental principle that religion is a matter of the iudien. xix] ON HUMAN UNDERSTANDING 001 reform them: sometimes the overthrow of all their plans cor rects them, but often it is too late. There was a visionary who lately died who believed himself immortal because he was very old and very well, and without having read the book of an Englishman lately published (who wished to make us believe that Jesus Christ came to exempt true believers from bodily death) was almost of the same opinion for some years past; Imt when he perceived that he was dying he went so far as to doubt all religion because it did not correspond to his chimera. Quirin Kulman [sic],1 a Silesian, a man of knowledge and judg ment, but who had since indulged in two kinds of visions, equally dangerous, the one of the enthusiasts, the other of the alchemists, and who made some stir in England, Holland, and even in Constantinople, being at last advised to go into Russia and there to mix himself np in certain intrigues against the minister, at the time Avheii the Princess Sophia governed it, was condemned to be burned, and did not die like a man pervidual reason and conscience, wholly free from State or other control, they bore in a general way a somewhat close resemblance to the Quakers and other enthusiasts of their time.
In this connection Schaarschmidt ventures the conjecture that Leibnitz may have had his attention called to the persons and circumstances men tioned in this chapter by a large work, appearing not long before, entitled, Anabaptist 'iciim e.t enthiisiasticum Pantheon, nnd Geistlicb.es Riisthauss wider die Alten Quiieker und Nenen Frey-Geister, u. s. w., Cothen, W. A. Meyer, 1702, since his allegations strikingly call to mind this work. But may not Bayle's Dictionnaire as well have been the source of his information, inas much as it contains considerably extended articles on the persons mentioned, and was a work with which Leibnitz was thoroughly familiar? — Tn.
1 Quirin Kuhhnann, 1651-1089, in consequence of a disordered brain result ing from a severe illness at the age of 18, became subject to hallucinations, lost his previous taste for study, claimed to possess a method by which he might know everything independent of the usual processes of acquisition, and that the Holy Ghost was his only teacher, and on these grounds considered himself a saint. At Leyden, falling in with the works of Boehme, he imme diately became an enthusiastic disciple. It is said that he wished to marry Antoinette Bourignon, but that her " inviolable chastity " caused her to refuse him. Leaving Holland in 1075 he travelled, it is believed, in England, France, and Turkey. At Constantinople he addressed a letter, Aug. 1, 1678, to the Sultan Mahomet IV., in which he predicted the conversion of the Turks, and sought to win the Sultan to his views. Failing to attain his desired end, lie went to Russia to set up the true kingdom of God, was opposed by Peter the Great, and after a brief trial condemned by the Greek Patriarch — it is said at the suggestion of a Lutheran clergyman — to be burned alive as a heretic in 1689. For further account, cf. Adelung, Gesch. d. manftch. Narrheit, Vol.
5, pp. 3-90 (.allusion to his alchemistic impostures, ibid., pp. 52, 53, 05, 81); \Vetzer und Welte, Kirchenlexicon, 7, 1237. — TR.
602 LEIBNITZ'S CRITIQUE OF LOCKE [UK. iv suaded of that which he had preached. The dissensions of these people among themselves ought further to convince them that their pretended internal witness is not divine; and that other signs are necessary to justify it. The Labadists,1 for exam ple, do not agree with Mademoiselle Antoinette, and although William Penn appears to have had the design in his travels in Germany, of which he has.published an account, of establish ing a kind of understanding between those who rely upon this witness, he does not appear to have succeeded.2 It is desira ble for the truth's sake that good people be intelligent and act in concert: nothing would be more capable of rendering the human race better and happier, but it would be necessary for them to be truly of the number of the good people, i.e. of the beneficent, and, further, docile and reasonable; instead 1 The Labadists were a mystic sect or community of the Reformed Church founded by Jean de Labadie, 1010-1(574, a noted Pietist or Mystic, who, origi nally a Roman Catholic, had become a Protestant, joined the Reformed Church, and afterwards at the head of his separatist congregation at Middleburg developed his scheme for the reformation of that ecclesiastical body. His doctrine was in many points similar to that of the Anabaptists. Labadie and his disciples wished to settle with A. Bourignon at Noordstrandt, but she would not consent, saying: "I perceive and know that we can never agree together. Their opinions and the spirit that governs them are altogether con trary to my light and the spirit that governs me." Leibnitz refers to Labadie in the Theodicee, Discours prelim., § 14; in a letter to Theophilus Spizel, April 7, 1071, Dutens, 5, 351-352; cf. also, Guhrauer, Leibnitz's deutsclie Sclirift., 2, 41)8-409. For further account, cf. the writings of two of his most enthusiastic disciples, Pierre Yvon, Abrege precis de la vie ct de la conduite et des vrais sentiments de feu M. de Labadie; Anna Maria v. Schiirman, Eucleria (said to be, perhaps, the best exposition of his views), Altona, 1073, 1078; also Arnold, Kirchen und Ketzerhistorie, Theil. II., Buch. XVII., Cap. XXL, Vol. 1, pp. 1180-1200; Vol. 2, pp. 1302-1350; H. van Berkum, De Labadie en de Labadisten, Sneek, 1851; Goebel, Gesch. d. christ. Lebens in d. rhein- isch-westphalischen Kirche, Vol. 2, Cobleutz, 1852; Heppe, Gesch. d. Pietis- mus, Leyden, 1879; Ritsche, Gesch. d. Pietismus, Vol. 1, Bonn, 1880. — TR.
2 William Penn, 1044-1718, made a missionary journey through Holland and Germany in 1071-1072, in the course of which he founded a Quaker society at Embden and became an intimate friend of the Princess Elizabeth of the Palatinate, to whom Descartes dedicated his Princip. Philos. His letters written during this journey contain a full account of the doctrine of the "inward light." In 1077 he made another missionary journey to the Conti nent, and published in 1094 a full account of the same, entitled Journal of my Travels in Holland and Germany. Cf. A Collection of the Works of Wm. Penn, London, 2 vols., fol., 1720, Vol. 1, pp. 50-110; Select Works, 3d ed., Lon don, 1782, 5 vols., 8vo, Vol. 3, pp. 373 sq. For short selections therefrom, cf. Janney, Life of Wm. Penn, chap. 9, pp. 125-137, 4th ed. revised, Phila., 1878; for more extended extracts, cf. Passages from the Life and Writings of Wm. Penn, Phila., 1882, VIII., pp. 141-199. — TR.
en. xix] ON HUMAN UNDERSTANDING 003 of which only too many of those who are called devout to-day are accused of being severe, imperious, obstinate. Their dis sensions make it appear at least that their internal witness needs an external verification in order to be believed, and mir acles would be necessary in order for them to have the right to pass as prophets and inspired men. There might, however, be a case where these inspirations would carry their proofs with them. This would be if they really enlightened the mind by important discoveries of some extraordinary knowledge, which without any external aid would be beyond the powers of the person who should have acquired them. If Jacob Boelime,1 a famous shoemaker of Lusace, whose writings have been translated from German into other languages under the name of the Teutonic Philosopher, and in reality possess some thing of grandeur and beauty for a man in this condition, had known how to make gold, as some are persuaded he did, ov as St. John the evangelist did, if we believe what is said in a hymn 2 composed in his honor: — Inexhaustum fert tliesaurum Qui de virgis fecit aurum, Gemmas de lapidibus, there would have been some reason for giving more credence to this extraordinary shoemaker. And if Mademoiselle Antoi nette Bourignon had furnished to Bertram! la Coste, a French engineer at Hamburg, the light in the sciences which he believed he had received from her, as he indicated in dedicating to her his book on the Quadrature of the Circle (in which, making allusion to Antoinette and Bertrand, he called her the A in theology, as he said he himself was the B in mathematics), we should not have known what to say.3 But we do not see exam- 2 Cf. L. Gautier, (Euvres Poetiques d'Adam de S.-Victor, Paris, 1858, 2 vols., 12mo, Vol. 1, p. 229, and the editor's learned note; D. S. Wrangham, The Liturr/ical Poetry of Adam of St. Victor, from the text of Gautier, ivith trans, into English in the original metres, etc., 3 vols., London, Kegan Paul, 1881, Vol. 1, p. 100. Leibnitz probably knew the hymn in Clichtoveus, Eluciilato'rium Ecdcsiasticum, Pt. IV., of which there were several editions from 1515-155(5, at Paris, Basel, Geneva. — TH.
3 Bertrand de Lacoste, a French engineer, born early in the 17th century, who, after some service as colonel of artillery in the army of the Duke of Brandenburg, obtained his discharge in lfif>3 and retired to Hamburg, where he devoted himself to the study of mathematics in general, and in particular 604 LEIBNITZ'S CRITIQUE (TF LOCKE [RK. iv pies of a considerable success of this nature, nor well-detailed predictions which have succeeded in the case of such persons. The prophecies of Poniatovia,1 of Drabitius and others, which the good man Comenius 2 published in his " Lux in Tenebris," and which contributed to the disturbances in the hereditary lands of the emperor, were found false, and those who believed them were unfortunate. Ragozky, Prince of Transylvania, was impelled by Drabitius 3 to the attack upon Poland in which he to the problem of the quadrature of the circle. On this suhject he published two works: Scheda de inventa quadratura circuit, 1663, and, in reply to a refutation of the same by Prof. Miiller, Demonstration de la quadrature du cercle, Hamburg, 1666, 4to, 1677, 8vo. A Flemish translation appeared in 1677, with the title Klarer Eewys von't Quadrat des Cirkels, dedicated to Antoinette Bourignon, whose person and teachings he for a time greatly admired; but failing to interest her equally in his mathematical studies, he finally opposed her and her doctrines as strongly as he had before advocated them, exciting the populace of Hamburg against her and forcing her to leave the city. He wrote against her his Scheda contra Ant. Bouriynoniam.