THE

MONTHLY REVIEW,

For AUGUST, 1759.

De l'Efprit; or, Effays on the Mind, and its feveral Faculties. By Helvetius. Concluded; fee Review for June.

N our Author's third effay, he confines himself clofer to

philofophical argument, than in either of the preceding. He founds his reasoning alfo on principles lefs vague and indeterminate; endeavouring to fhew how far the primary faculties of the mind, or actuating powers of human nature, operate, in modelling our various paffions, and in the production of most of the remarkable phænomena in the moral world.

The bufinefs of this curious effay is, in general, to inveftigate whether genius ought to be confidered as a natural gift, or an effect of education?'

In order to folve this problem, enquiry is made, whether nature has endowed men with an equal ability of mind, or whether she has favoured fome more than others: alfo, how far men, whofe organs of fenfe are perfect, have in themselves the power of acquiring fublimity of ideas.

In the prosecution of this enquiry, our Author firft lays it down as certain, that if nature has given to different men unequal difpofitions of mind, it is by enduing fome, preferC ably to others, with a little more delicacy of the fenfes, extent of memory, and capacity of attention.' He then goes on to confider, what influence the difference nature may have made in this refpect among us, has on the mind of man; conVOL. XXI.

་

H

cluding,

cluding, on the whole, that nature has endowed all men, (except idiots and fuch as have but imperfect organs) with an equal capacity to acquire the moft lofty ideas, as well as the greateft ftrength and profundity of judgment. What then, it may be afked, is really the caule of that inequality obfervable in the intellects and genius of individuals? It lies not, says our Author, in any phyfical incapacity in human nature; but in our different incitements to application: not in any difference in the natural delicacy of our fenfes, the extent of our memory, or our capacity of attention; but in the different degrees of influence in the motives that excite us to apply the faculties of the mind to contemplation and fcience. Now, the ftrength of refolution, wherewith we are determined to this application, will vary, fays he, according to the circumftances of education, country, family, acquaintance, &c. It is admitted, however, that the paffions operate with different force on different minds; and that though fometimes trivial and adventitious circumftances direct to the object of purfuit, yet it is owing to the different influence of the paffions, that we outftrip or fall fhort of each other in the race.

Such is our Author's manner of reasoning, in the effay before us; the general conclufion from which is, that all men well organized, have the natural power of acquiring the most exalted ideas; and that the difference of genius obfervable in them, depends on the various circumftances in which they are placed, and the different education they receive.

In illuftrating the feveral arguments leading to this conclufion, Mr. Helvetius has difplayed an extenfive knowlege of mankind, and a very intimate acquaintance with the workings of the human heart. Our Readers will, we doubt not, perufe the following extracts with peculiar pleafure: the first relating to the origin of the paffions in general, and the other to that abfurd one of avarice in particular; by which they may judge whether we have over-rated the genius or fagacity of our

Author.

On the Origin of the Paffions.

In order to arrive at this knowlege, we must distinguish the paffions into two kinds: thofe immediately given us by nature; and thofe we owe to the establishment of fociety. And to know which of thefe paffions has produced the other, let us tranfport ourselves in idea to the first ages of the world, and we fhall there fee that nature, by hunger, thirst, heat, and cold, informed man of his wants, and added a variety of

Haules idées.

pleafing

pleafing and painful fenfations; the former to the gratifications of these wants, the latter to the incapacity of gratify ing them there we fhall behold man capable of receiving the impreffions of pleasure and pain, and born as it were with a love for the one, and hatred for the other. Such was man, when he came from the hand of nature,

In this ftate he had neither envy, pride, avarice, nor ambition; fenfible only of the pleasure and pain derived from nature, he was ignorant of all thofe artificial pains and pleafures we procure from the above paffions. Such paffions are then not immediately given by nature; but their existence, which fuppofes that of fociety, alfo fuppofes that we have in us the latent feeds of those paffions. If, therefore, we receive at our birth only wants, in those wants, and in our firft defires, we muft feek the origin of these artificial paffions, which can be nothing more than the unfolding of the faculty of fenfation.

Perhaps both in the moral and natural world, God originally implanted only one principle in all he created, and that what is, and what shall be, is only the neceffary unfolding ⚫ of this principle.

He said to matter, I endow thee with power. Immediately the elements, fubject to the laws of motion, but wandering and confounded in the defarts of fpace, formed a thoufand monftrous affemblages, and produced a thousand differ? ent chaofes, till they at last placed themselves in that equilibrium and natural order, in which the univerfe is now fuppofed to be arranged.

He seems alfo to have said to man, I endow thee with fenfibility, the blind inftrument of my will, that being inca'pable of penetrating into the depth of my views, thou may'st accomplish all my defigns. I place thee under the guardianfhip of pleasure and pain: both fhall watch over thy thoughts and thy actions; they fhall beget thy paffions, excite thy friendship, thy tenderness, thine averfion, thy rage; they fhall kindle thy defires, thy fears, thy hopes; they thall take off the veil of truth; they fhall plunge thee in error, and after having made thee conceive a thoufand abfurd and different fyftems of morality and government, fhall one day 'discover to thee the fimple principles, on the unfolding of ' which depends the order and happiness of the moral world.

Let us fuppofe, that heaven fuddenly animates feveral men, f their firft employment will be to fatisfy their wants, and foon after they will endeavour, by their cries, to express the

H 2

fim

impreffions they receive from pleasure and pain. Thofe cries. will conftitute their firft language, which, if we may judge from the poverty of the languages of the favages, must be very confined, and reducible to thefe firft founds. When mankind, by becoming more numerous, fhall begin to spread over the furface of earth; and like the waves of the ocean, which cover its diftant banks, and instantly retire into its capacious bed, many generations fhall have appeared on the earth, and be fwallowed up in the gulph, wherein all things are forgotten; when families fhall live nearer to each other; when the defire becomes common of poffeffing the fame things, as the fruit of a certain tree, or the favours of a particular woman, it will excite quarrels and combats; and thefe beget anger and revenge. When, fated with blood, and weary of living in perpetual fear, mankind fhall confent to lose a small part of that liberty they found fo prejudicial in a state of nature; they will enter into conventions with each other, and thefe conventions will be their first laws; when they have formed laws, they will entrust some perfons with the care of feeing them put in execution, and those will be the first magiftrates. These rude magiftrates of a favage people will inhabit the forefts. After having in part deftroyed the animals, the people will no longer be able to live by hunting, and the, fcarcity of provifions will teach them the art of breeding and tending their flocks, which will fupply their wants; and the nations that fubfifted by hunting, will become nations of fhepherds. After a certain number of ages, when these last will be extremely multiplied, fo that the earth will not in the fame fpace yield nourishment for a greater number of inhabitants, without being cultivated by human labour, the nations of fhepherds will disappear, and give place to nations of husbandmen. The calls of hunger in difcovering the art of agriculture, fhall foon learn them that of meaturing and dividing the lands. This being done, every man's property muft be fecured to him, and thence will arife a number of fciences and laws. Lands, from their different nature and cultivation, bearing different fruits, men will purchafe what they want, by making ex་ changes with each other, and at length perceive the advantage of a general exchange, that will reprefent all commodities and for this purpofe they will make ufe of shells or metals. When focieties are arrived at this point of perfection, all equality between men will be destroyed: they will be diftinguifhed into fuperiors and inferiors: then the words GOOD and EVIL, formed to cxprefs the natural fenfations of pleasure and pain we receive from external objects,

8

will

will generally extend to every thing that can procure, increafe, or diminish, either of thefe fenfations; fuch are riches and indigence: and then riches and honours, by the advantages annexed to them, will become the general object ⚫ of the defires of mankind. Hence will arife, according to the different forms of government, criminal or virtuous' paffions, fuch as envy, avarice, pride, and ambition, patriotifm, a love of glory, magnanimity, and even love, which being given by nature only as a want, will be confounded with vanity, and become an artificial paffion, that will, like the others, arife from the unfolding of the natural fenfibility.

• However certain this conclufion may be, there are few men who can clearly perceive the ideas from which it refults. Befides, by owning that our paffions originally derive their fource from natural fenfibility, we may believe, that in the ftate in which polite nations are actually placed, these paffions existed independently of the caufes that has produced them. I propofe then to follow the metamorphofis of the natural pleasures and pains, into the artificial pleafures and pains, and to fhew, that in the paffions, fuch as avarice, ambition, pride, and friendship, which feem leaft to belong to the pleafures of fenfe, we always either feek natural pleasure, or fhun natural pain.'

Our Author goes on to illuftrate this general rule, of our paffions having their rife from natural fenfibility, by accounting for feveral particular ones, which appear to be most independent of this caufe; as avarice, ambition, pride, and friendship.

He accounts for that of avarice as follows:

• Gold and filver may be confidered as objects agreeable to the eye but if we defired nothing more in their poffeffion, than the pleasures produced by the luftre and beauty of thefe metals, the avaricious man would reft fatisfied with being ⚫ allowed to contemplate freely, heaps of gold and filver in the public treafury. But as this view would be far from gratifying his paffion, it neceffarily follows, that the avaricious, of whatever clafs, either defires riches as the means of procuring pleasure, or as an exemption from the miferies with which poverty is attended.

This principle being established, I affert, that man being, by nature, fenfible of no other pleasures than those of the fenfes, thefe pleasures are confequently the only object of his defires. A fondness for luxury, magnificent equipages, expenfive entertainments, and fuperb furniture, is then an • artificial

H 3