A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 02 — Voltaire — John Shaqi
A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 02
Voltaire · en
God being the first mover, He gives motion to the soul. But what is God,
and what is the soul, according to him? The soul is an _entelechia_. "It
is," says he, "a principle and an act--a nourishing, feeling, and
reasoning power." This can only mean that we have the faculties of
nourishing ourselves, of feeling, and of reasoning. The Greeks no more
knew what an _entelechia_ was than do the South Sea islanders; nor have
our doctors any more knowledge of what a soul is.
_His Morals._
Aristotle's morals, like all others, are good, for there are not two
systems of morality. Those of Confucius, of Zoroaster, of Pythagoras, of
Aristotle, of Epictetus, of Antoninus, are absolutely the same. God has
placed in every breast the knowledge of good, with some inclination for
evil.
Aristotle says that to be virtuous three things are necessary--nature,
reason, and habit; and nothing is more true. Without a good disposition,
virtue is too difficult; reason strengthens it; and habit renders good
actions as familiar as a daily exercise to which one is accustomed.
He enumerates all the virtues, and does not fail to place friendship
among them. He distinguishes friendship between equals, between
relatives, between guests, and between lovers. Friendship springing from
the rights of hospitality is no longer known among us. That which, among
the ancients, was the sacred bond of society is, with us, nothing but an
innkeeper's reckoning; and as for lovers, it is very rarely nowadays
that virtue has anything to do with love. We think we owe nothing to a
woman to whom we have a thousand times promised everything.
It is a melancholy reflection that our first thinkers have never ranked
friendship among the virtues--have rarely recommended friendship; but,
on the contrary, have often seemed to breathe enmity, like tyrants, who
dread all associations.
It is, moreover, with very good reason that Aristotle places all the
virtues between the two extremes. He was, perhaps, the first who
assigned them this place. He expressly says that piety is the medium
between atheism and superstition.
_His Rhetoric._
It was probably his rules for rhetoric and poetry that Cicero and
Quintilian had in view. Cicero, in his "Orator" says that "no one had
more science, sagacity, invention, or judgment." Quintilian goes so far
as to praise, not only the extent of his knowledge, but also the suavity
of his elocution--_suavitatem eloquendi._
Aristotle would have an orator well informed respecting laws, finances,
treaties, fortresses, garrisons, provisions, and merchandise. The
orators in the parliaments of England, the diets of Poland, the states
of Sweden, the _pregadi_ of Venice, etc., would not find these lessons
of Aristotle unprofitable; to other nations, perhaps, they would be so.
He would have his orator know the passions and manners of men, and the
humors of every condition.