[6] Dans un cercle, ou à table, il lui fallait toujours un rempart de chaises, ou quelqu'un dans son voisinage du côté gauche, pour l'empêcher de voir des abîmes épouvantables dans lesquels il craignait quelquefois de tomber, quelque connaissance qu'il eut de ces illusions. Quel effrayant effet de l'imagination, ou d'une singulière circulation dans un lobe du cerveau! Grand homme d'un côté, il était à moitié fou de l'autre. La folie et la sagesse avaient chacun leur département, ou leur lobe, séparé par la faux. De quel côté tenait-il si fort à Mrs. de Port-Royal? J'ai lu ce fait dans un extrait du traité du vertige de Mr. de la Mettrie. [7] Au moins par les vaisseaux. Est-il sûr qu'il n'y en a point par les nerfs? [8] Haller dans les Transact. Philosoph. [9] Boerhaave, Inst. Med. et tant d'autres. [10] He evidently errs by begging the question. [11] The history of animals and of men proves how the mind and the body of children are dominated by their inheritance from their fathers. [12] The author of "The Natural History of the Soul." [13] The author of "The History of the Soul." [14] There are peoples, even to-day, who, through lack of a greater number of signs, can count only to 20. [15] In a company, or at table, he always required a rampart of chairs or else some one close to him at the left, to prevent his seeing horrible abysses into which (in spite of his understanding these illusions) he sometimes feared that he might fall. What a frightful result of imagination, or of the peculiar circulation in a lobe of the brain! Great man on one side of his nature, on the other he was half-mad. Madness and wisdom, each had its compartment, or its lobe, the two separated by a fissure. Which was the side by which he was so strongly attached to Messieurs of Port Royal? (I have read this in an extract from the treatise on vertigo by M. de la Mettrie.) [16] Haller in the Transact. Philosoph. [17] "L'histoire naturelle de l'âme," chapters XI, VIII. [18] "Man a Machine," p. 142. Cf. La Mettrie's commentary on Descartes's teaching in "Abrégé des systèmes philosophiques," OEuvres, Tome 2. [19] "Abrégé des systèmes, Descartes," p. 6, OEuvres Philosophiques, Tome 2. [20] "Man a Machine," page 89. Cf. "L'histoire naturelle de l'âme" (or "Traité de l'âme"), OEuvres, 1746, p. 229. [21] Descartes, "Principles," Part II, Prop. 4. [22] "Man a Machine," pp. 122-126. [23] Ibid., p. 142. [24] Hobbes, "Leviathan," Part III, Chap. 34; Part I, Chap. XII, Open Court Edition, p. 169. [25] "L'histoire naturelle de l'âme," Chapters III, V, and VI. [26] "Leviathan," Part I, Chap. I. Cf. "Concerning Body," Part IV, Chap. XXV, 2. [27] "Man a Machine," pp. 90-91. [28] "Leviathan," Part I, Chap. VI, Molesworth Ed., p. 40. Cf. "Man a Machine," p. 90. [29] Ibid., Part I, Chap. IV. Cf. "Man a Machine," p. 103. [30] Ibid., Part I, Chap. XII. [31] "Letters to Serena," V, p. 168. [32] Ibid., p. 196. [33] Ibid., p. 203. [34] Ibid., p. 199.