[40.] “Who can be sure that the reason for man’s existence is not simply the fact that he exists?” Luzac opposes this by saying: “If the reason of man’s existence was in man himself, this existence would be a necessary consequence of his own nature; so that his own nature would contain the cause or reason of his existence. Now since his own nature would imply the cause of his existence, it would also imply his existence itself, so that man could no more be considered as non-existent than a circle can be considered without radii or a picture without features or proportions.... If the existence of man was in man himself, he would then be an invariable being.”[49]
[41.] “Fénelon (François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon), born at Château de Fénelon, Dordogne, France, August 6, 1651, died at Cambrai, France, January 7, 1715. A celebrated French prelate, orator, and author. He became preceptor of the sons of the dauphin in 1689, and was appointed archbishop of Cambrai in 1695. His works include ‘Les aventures de Télémaque’ (1699), ‘Dialogues des morts’ (1712), ‘Traité de l’éducation des filles’ (1688), ‘Explication des maximes des saints’ (1697), etc. His collected works were edited by Leclère (38 vols., 1827–1830).”[50]
[42.] “Nieuwentyt (Bernard), a Dutch mathematician, born in West-Graftdijk the tenth of August 1654, died at Purmerend the thirtieth of May, 1718. An unrelenting Cartesian, he combated the infinitesimal calculus, and wrote a polemic against Leibnitz, concerning this subject. He wrote a theological dissertation translated into French under the title “L’existence de Dieu démontrée par les merveilles de la nature” (Paris, 1725).”[51]
[43.] “Abadie, James (Jacques), born at Nay, Basse-Pyrénées, probably in 1654; died at London, September 25, 1725. A noted French Protestant theologian. He went to Berlin about 1680 as minister of the French church there, and thence to England and Ireland; was for a time minister of the French church in the Savoy; and settled in Ireland as dean of Killaloe in 1699. His chief work is the ‘Traité de la vérité de la religion chrétienne’ (1684), with its continuation ‘Traité de la divinité de nôtre Seigneur Jesus-Christ’ (1689).”[52]
[44.] “Derham (William), English theologian and scholar, born in Stoughton, near Worcester, in 1657, died at Upminster in 1735. Pastor of Upminster in the county of Essex, he could peacefully devote himself to his taste for mechanics and natural history. Besides making studies of watch-making, and of fish, birds, and insects, published in part in the Transactions of the Royal Society, he wrote several works on religious philosophy. The most important, which was popular for a long time and was translated into French (1726), has as title ‘Physico-Theology, or the Demonstration of the Existence and the Attributes of God, by the Works of His Creation’ (1713). He wrote as complement, in 1714, his ‘Astro-Theology, or the Demonstration of the Existence and Attributes of God by the Observation of the Heavens.’”[53]
[45.] Rais, or Cardinal de Retz (1614–1679), was a French politician and author. From his childhood he was intended for the church. He took an active part in the movement against Cardinal Mazarin, and later became cardinal, but lost his popularity, and was imprisoned at Vincennes. After escaping from there he returned to France and settled in Lorraine, where he wrote his ‘Mémoires,’ which tell of the court life of his time.[54]
[46.] Marcello Malpighi (1628–1694) was a renowned Italian anatomist and physiologist. He held the position of lecturer on medicine at Bologna in 1656, a few months later became professor at Pisa, was made professor at Bologna in 1660, went from there to Messina, though he later returned to Bologna. In 1691 he became physician to Pope Innocent XII. Malpighi is often known as the founder of microscopic anatomy. He was the first to see the marvelous spectacle of the circulation of the blood on the surface of a frog’s lung. He discovered the vesicular structure of the human lung, the structure of the secreting glands, and the mucous character of the lower stratum of the epidermis. He was the first to undertake the finer anatomy of the brain, and he accurately described the distribution of grey matter, and of the fibre tracts in the cord. His works are: “De pulmonibus” (Bologna, 1661), “Epistolae anatomicae narc. Malpighi et Car. Fracassati” (Amsterdam, 1662), “De Viscerum Structura” (London, 1669), “Anatome Plantarum” (London, 1672), “De Structura Glandularum conglobatarum” (London, 1689).[55]
[47.] Deism is a system of thought which arose in the latter part of the seventeenth century. Its most important representatives in England were Toland, Collins, Chubb, Shaftsbury, and Tindal. They insisted on freedom of thought and speech, and claimed that reason is superior to any authority. They denied the necessity of any supernatural revelation, and were consequently vigorously opposed by the church. Partly because of this opposition by the church, many of them argued against Christianity, and tried to show that an observance of moral laws is the only religion necessary for man. They taught that happiness is man’s chief end, and that, since man is a social being, his happiness can best be gained by mutual helpfulness. Although they declared that nature is the work of a perfect being, they had a mechanical conception of the relation of God to the world, and did not, like later theists, find evidence of God’s presence in all the works of nature.[56]
[48.] “Vanini, Lucilio, self-styled Julius Cæsar. Born at Taurisano, kingdom of Naples, about 1585; burned at the stake at Toulouse, France, February 19, 1619. An Italian free thinker, condemned to death as an atheist and magician. He studied at Rome and Padua, became a priest, traveled in Germany and the Netherlands, and began teaching at Lyons, but was obliged to flee to England, where he was arrested. After his release he returned to Lyons, and about 1617 settled at Toulouse. Here he was arrested for his opinions, condemned, and on the same day executed. His chief works are: ‘Amphitheatrum aeternae Providentiae’ (1615), ‘De admirandis naturae reginae deaeque mortalium arcanis’ (1616).”[57]
[49.] Desbarreaux (Jacques Vallée). A French writer, born at Paris in 1602, who died at Chalon-sur-Saône the ninth of May, 1673. He wrote a celebrated sonnet on penitence, but was rather an unbeliever and sceptic than a penitent. Guy Patin, hearing of his death, said: “He infected poor young people by his licence. His conversation was very dangerous and destructive to the public.”[58]