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TO M. DE CORCELLE. - Alexis de Tocqueville, Memoir, Letters, and Remains of Alexis de Tocqueville, vol. 2 [1861]

Edition used:

Memoir, Letters, and Remains of Alexis de Tocqueville. Translated from the French by the translator of Napoleon’s Correspondence with King Joseph. With large Additions. In Two Volumes (London: Macamillan, 1861). 2 vols.

Part of: Memoir, Letters, and Remains of Alexis de Tocqueville, 2 vols.

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TO M. DE CORCELLE.

Like you, my dear friend, I have never had much taste for metaphysics, perhaps because I have never seriously studied them, and have always thought that mere good sense would carry one as far. But, nevertheless, I acknowledge that they have had extraordinary attractions for some of the most remarkable and even religious minds that the world has ever seen; in spite of Voltaire’s saying, that metaphysics are a mere romance about the mind.

The ages in which metaphysics have been most cultivated, have in general been those in which men have been most raised above themselves. Indeed, though I care little for the study, I have always been struck by the influence which it has exercised over the things which seem least connected with it, and even over society in general. I do not think that any statesman ought to be indifferent as to whether the prevailing metaphysical opinions be materialistic or not. Condillac, I have no doubt, drove many people into materialism who had never read his book; for abstract ideas relating to human nature penetrate at last, I know not how, into public morals.

You would prefer the truth to be reached without so much ceremony, and

Qu’Aronce de plein pied épousât Clélie.*

Your sally made me laugh, but did not change my opinion on essentials.

[*]“That Aronce should marry Clélie without more ado.” From the “Précieuses ridicules.” It is an allusion to one of Mademoiselle de Soudéry’s celebrated romances.—Tr.