BY M. V. COUSIN.
INCREASED BY
An Appendix on French Art.
TRANSLATED, WITH THE APPROBATION OF M. COUSIN, BY
O. W. WIGHT,
TRANSLATOR OF COUSIN'S "COURSE OF THE HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY," AMERICANEDITOR OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON, BART., AUTHOROF "THE ROMANCE OF ABELARD AND HELOISE," ETC., ETC.
"God is the life of the soul, as the soul is the life of the body."
The Platonists and the Fathers.
NEW YORK:
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
549 & 551 BROADWAY.
1872.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854,
By D. APPLETON & CO.,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States
for the Southern District of New York.
TO
SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON, BART.,
Professor of Logic and Metaphysics in the University of Edinburgh:
WHO HAS CLEARLY ELUCIDATED, AND, WITH GREAT ERUDITION,
SKETCHED THE HISTORY OF THE DOCTRINE OF
COMMON SENSE;
WHO, FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF HIS ILLUSTRIOUS COUNTRYMAN, REID
HAS ESTABLISHED THE DOCTRINE OF THE
IMMEDIATENESS OF PERCEPTION,
THEREBY FORTIFYING PHILOSOPHY AGAINST THE ASSAULTS OF SKEPTICISM;
WHO, TAKING A STEP IN ADVANCE OF ALL OTHERS,
HAS GIVEN TO THE WORLD A DOCTRINE OF THE
CONDITIONED,
THE ORIGINALITY AND IMPORTANCE OF WHICH ARE ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE
FEW QUALIFIED TO JUDGE IN SUCH MATTERS; WHOSE
NEW ANALYTIC OF LOGICAL FORMS
COMPLETES THE HITHERTO UNFINISHED WORKS OF ARISTOTLE;
THIS TRANSLATION OF M. COUSIN'S
Lectures on the True, the Beautiful, and the Good,
IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED,
IN ADMIRATION OF A PROFOUND AND INDEPENDENT THINKER,
OF AN INCOMPARABLE MASTER OF PHILOSOPHIC CRITICISM;
AS A TOKEN OF ESTEEM FOR A MAN IN WHOM GENIUS
AND ALMOST UNEQUALLED LEARNING
HAVE BEEN ADORNED BY
TRUTH, BEAUTY, AND GOODNESS OF LIFE.{7}
For some time past we have been asked, on various sides, to collect in abody of doctrine the theories scattered in our different works, and tosum up, in just proportions, what men are pleased to call ourphilosophy.
This résumé was wholly made. We had only to take again the lecturesalready quite old, but little known, because they belonged to a timewhen the courses of the Faculté des Lettres had scarcely any influencebeyond the Quartier Latin, and, also, because they could be found onlyin a considerable collection, comprising all our first instruction, from1815 to 1821.[1] These lectures were there, as it were, lost in thecrowd. We have drawn them hence, and giv