III. LOGICAL KNIGHT-ERRANTRY. ""Tis not in man, To look unmoved upon that heaving waste, As wide, as terrible, and yet sometimes THE father of Abelard before commencing the occupation of arms, had received some instruction, and never lost a taste for letters.* He was desirous that the military education of his sons should be preceded by some intellectual culture. Love for his first-born, Vie d'Abelard, par M. de Remusat, p. 3. inspired him with particular care for the instruction of that son. The bright, fair boy more than answered the hopes of his parent. He early showed a subtlety of mind that promised a glorious future, and a brilliant career. As he increased in strength and years, the bias for letters, that had been given by his father, also increased. He renounced a military life, and abandoned to his brothers his inheritance, and his right of primogeniture. Philosophy first wins the passionate love of the beautiful brilliant boy, and never will she let go her strong hold upon his fiery heart. He abandons Mars for Minerva, and will write his history with tears instead of blood. Dear, fair-haired, beautiful-browed boy, thou dost not yet know the cost of wisdom; other years shall teach thee that it must be paid for in the fusion of the brain, over the burning of the heart! And what, if a vase of ashes shall at length take the place of thy heart, and thy brain congeal to stone! With thee, also, fate opens an account; take what thou wilt, but payment thou shalt not escape, even to the uttermost farthing. Choose thy principles of action, but know that thou must abide the results. Abelard was a real Breton.* inherit his country and his times. Every man must In arms and in * Ouvr. ined. d'Abelard, par M. V. Cousin, Dialectic. p. 222 et 591. philosophy, the Bretons have always manifested a character of unconquerable resistance; obstinate firmness, and fearless opposition. The true Breton is a compound of the Greek and the Celt. Pelagius*, the first churchman who was an avowed champion of liberty, who provoked the attacks of St. Augustine and St. Jerome, who denied original sin, and would not admit the doctrine of redemption, who unconsciously would have robbed Christianity of her piety and her heart, the purity of whose life was regarded by the fathers in the church, as increasing the danger of his heretical doctrines; this giant, as he is described by one of his opponents, with the strength of Milo of Crotona, who spoke with labor yet with power, was a native of Brittany, a man of the sea-shore, as his name implies, of that shore where the sea wails for ever, and beats as it were upon the heart of the beholder, imparting to it her own untamable energy, and unsubduable spirit of freedom. Descartes, who philosophized with as much intrepidity as he fought under the walls of Prague,* was a Breton. By the strong-breasted and hard-headed Bretons, the Northmen and the English again and again were repulsed. Believers and unbelievers, orators and poets, Brittany has produced. The last exclamation heard at Water *St. Augustin, t. xii. diss. de Primis Auct. Haer. Pelagianae. † M. Cousin's History of Modern Philosophy, t. i., p. 44. loo, it is said, was uttered by a Breton,-"The guard dies, but does not surrender."* Abelard has the blood of his Breton mother in his veins. Mars he has renounced, but for the goddess of wisdom he will fight, with such arms as she will permit. To the science of dialectics, the art of intellectual warfare, he devotes himself, preferring a logical combat to a conflict of arms; preferring to triumph over a refuted rather than a slaughtered enemy. Have a care, brave boy, thy brain is not the whole of thee; thy soul is larger than thy warlike logic. Still a mere lad, Abelard availed himself of every opportunity to engage in the contests of reasoning. Such was his natural ability, and such his acquired skill, that no champion could be found in the neighborhood to stand before him. Like a fearless knight, leaving the paternal mansion, he went from province to province,† searching for masters and adversaries, marching from controversy to controversy, eager to enter the lists for a dialectic tilt, putting lance in rest, with or without provocation, unhorsing, beardless as he was, every logical combatant. He was a peripatetic, whose walk extended from end to end of the kingdom. He was a real logical knight-errant, every where seeking philosophic adventures. Michelet: Histoire de France, 1. iii. The Guizot edition of the Abelard and Heloise letters: the first letter of Abelard, p. 5. In the eleventh century, dialectics were called an art.* The one who was skilled in dialectics was called a master of arts,—a title which is still in use. This art rivalled theology in importance, and we might add, with a little exaggeration, in power. Theology sometimes consented to be served by dialectics, but always showed signs of uneasiness when in the presence of her subtle foe. The former was based upon authority; the latter demanded an exercise of free thought. Mother Church has always hated and cursed every independent thinker, so it is necessary for thee, thou youthful knight-errant of logic, to beware. Authority† gives thee, on the one hand, the premises,— on the other, the conclusions; it will not be safe to question the former, nor to transcend the latter. Talk as it may please thee about genus, species, difference, property, and accident; about categories or predicaments; about the universal principles of language; about reasoning and demonstration; about the rules of division; about the science of discussion and refutation,—go from premises to conclusions by what route thou wilt, but do not rashly venture further; within this charmed circle it is permitted thee to obey reason and God; out of it close thy clear eye, and follow the voice of the siren that calls thee to * Vie d'Abelard, p. 5. M. Cousin: His. Ph., t. II., lecture ix. |