men. But, if we give to this word
a more true and extensive signification, and in general comprehend
everything that relates to our instruction; then I say, that nobody
receives the same education; because each individual has, for his
preceptors, if I may be allowed to say so, the form of government under
which he lives, his friends, his mistresses, the people about him,
whatever he reads, and in short chance; that is, an infinite number
or events, with respect to which our ignorance will not permit us to
perceive their causes, and the chain that connects them together. Now,
this chance has a greater share in our education than is imagined. It
is this places certain objects before us, and in consequence of
this, occasions more happy ideas, and sometimes leads to the greatest
discoveries. To give some examples: it was chance that conducted Galileo
into the gardens of Florence, when the gardeners were working the pumps:
it was that which inspired those gardeners, when, not being able to
raise the water above the height of 32 feet, to ask him the cause, and
by that question piqued the vanity of the philosopher, put in action by
so casual a question, that obliged him to make this natural effect the
subject of his thoughts, till, at last, by discovering the weight of
the air, he found the solution of the problem. In the moment when the
peaceful soul of Newton was employed by no business, and agitated by
no passion, it was also chance that, drawing him under an apple tree,
loosened some of the fruit from the branches, and gave that philosopher
the first idea of his system on gravitation: it was really this incident
that afterwards made him turn his thoughts to inquire whether the moon
does not gravitate towards the earth with the same force as that with
which bodies fall on its surface? It is then to chance that great
geniuses are frequently obliged for their most happy thoughts. How many
great minds are confounded among the people of moderate capacities for
want of a certain tranquillity of soul, the question of a gardener, or
the fall of an apple!"

Of the "exclusive qualities of the Mind and Soul," Helvetius observes:--

"My view in the preceding chapters was to affix clear ideas to the
several qualities of the mind, I propose in this to examine if there are
talents that must necessarily exclude each other? This question, it is
said, is determined by facts; no person is, at the same time, superior
to all others in many d