The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume II (of II), by Augustus de Morgan, Edited by David Eugene Smith
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Title: A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume II (of II)
Release Date: August 23, 2008 [eBook #26408]
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REPRINTED WITH THE AUTHOR'S ADDITIONS FROM THE ATHENAEUM
SECOND EDITION EDITED BY DAVID EUGENE SMITH
PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
UNABRIDGED EDITION--TWO VOLUMES BOUND AS ONE
_This new Dover Edition, published in 1954, is an unabridged republication of the Second Edition of 1915, with a new introduction by Professor Ernest Nagel._
_Copyright 1954 by Dover Publications, Inc. Manufactured in the United States of America_
With the general run of the philosophical atheists of the last century the notion of a God was an hypothesis. There was left an admitted possibility that the vague somewhat which went by more names than one, might be personal, intelligent, and superintendent. In the works of Laplace,[1] who is sometimes called an atheist from his writings, there is nothing from which such an inference can be drawn: unless indeed a Reverend Fellow of the Royal Society may be held to be the fool who said in his heart, etc., etc., if his contributions to the _Philosophical Transactions_ go no higher than _nature_. The following anecdote is well known in Paris, but has never been printed entire. Laplace once went in form to present some edition of his "Système du Monde" to the First Consul, or Emperor. Napoleon, whom some wags had told that this book contained no mention of the name of God, and who was fond of putting embarrassing questions, received it with--"M. Laplace, they tell me you have written this large book on the system of the universe, and have never even mentioned its Creator." Laplace, who, though the most supple of politicians, was as stiff as a martyr on every point of his philosophy or religion (e. g., even under Charles X he never concealed his dislike of the priests), drew himself up and answered { 2} bluntly, "Je n'avais pas besoin de cette hypothèse-là."[2] Napoleon, greatly amused, told this reply to Lagrange, who exclaimed, "Ah! c'est une belle hypothèse; ça explique beaucoup de choses."[3]