[257] See our discussion on the Pensées de Pascal, vol. i. of the 4th Series.
[258] See the end of the first book of the Republic, vol. ix. of our translation.
[259] Esprit des Lois, passim.
[260] Works of Turgot, vol. ii., Discours en Sorbonne sur les Avantages que l'établissement du Christianism a procurés au Genre Humain, etc.
[261] In the Correspondence, the letter to Dr. Stiles, March 9, 1790, written by Franklin a few months before his death: "I am convinced that the moral and religious system which Jesus Christ has transmitted to us is the best that the world has seen or can see."—We here re-translate, not having the works of Franklin immediately at hand.
[262] We have not ceased to claim, to earnestly call for, the alliance between Christianity and philosophy, as well as the alliance between the monarchy and liberty. See particularly 3d Series, vol. iv., Philosophie Contemporaine, preface of the second edition; 4th Series, vol. i., Pascal, 1st and 2d preface, passim; 5th Series, vol. ii., Discours à la Chambre des Paris pour le Defence de l'Université et de la Philosophie. We everywhere profess the most tender veneration for Christianity,—we have only repelled the servitude of philosophy, with Descartes, and the most illustrious doctors of ancient and modern times, from St. Augustine and St. Thomas, to the Cardinal de la Lucerne and the Bishop of Hermopolis. Moreover, we love to think that those quarrels, originating in other times from the deplorable strife between the clergy and the University, have not survived it, and that now all sincere friends of religion and philosophy will give each other the hand, and will work in concert to encourage desponding souls and lift up burdened characters.
[263] Still living in 1818, died in 1828.
[264] In 1804.
[265] Died, 1814.
[266] This was said in 1818. Since then, Jacobi, Hegel, and Schleiermacher, with so many others, have disappeared. Schelling alone survives the ruins of the German philosophy.