Grateful to an indulgent public, on both sides of the ocean, for a kindly and very favorable reception of our version of M. Cousin's "Course of the History of Modern Philosophy," we add this translation of his "Lectures on the True, the Beautiful, and the Good," hoping that his explanation of human nature will aid some in solving the grave problem of life,--for there are always those, and the most gifted, too, who feel the need of understanding themselves,--believing that his eloquence, his elevated sentiment, and elevated thought, will afford gratification to a refined taste, a chaste imagination, and a disciplined mind. O. W. WIGHT. LONDON, Dec. 21, 1853 ADVERTISEMENT. The Publishers have to express their thanks to M. COUSIN for his cordial concurrence, and especially for his kindness in transmitting the sheets of the French original as printed, so that this translation appears almost simultaneously with it. EDINBURGH, 38 GEORGE-STREET, Dec. 26, 1853. THE STEM. CONTENTS. AUTHOR'S PREFACE _Page_ 7 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE 15 DISCOURSE PRONOUNCED AT THE OPENING OF THE COURSE.--PHILOSOPHY OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 25 Spirit and general principles of the Course.--Object of the Lectures of this year:--application of the principles of which an exposition is given, to the three Problems of the True, the Beautiful, and the Good. PART FIRST.--THE TRUE. LECTURE I.--THE EXISTENCE OF UNIVERSAL AND NECESSARY PRINCIPLES 39 Two great wants, that of absolute truths, and that of absolute truths that may not be chimeras. To satisfy these two wants is the problem of the philosophy of our time.--Universal and necessary principles.--Examples of different kinds of such principles.--Distinction between universal and necessary principles and general principles.--Experience alone is incapable of explaining universal and necessary principles, and also incapable of dispensing with them in order to arrive at the knowledge of the sensible world.--Reason as being that faculty of ours which discovers to us these principles.--The study of universal and necessary principles introduces us to the highest parts of philosophy. LECTURE II.--ORIGIN OF UNIVERSAL AND NECESSARY PRINCIPLES 51