will and
intelligence. To Descartes, as we have seen, the ultimate essence of
mind lay in pure abstract self-determination or will, and hence he
based even moral and intellectual truth on the arbitrary decrees of
God. With Malebranche, on the other hand, abstraction goes a step
further; and the absolute is sought not in the subject as opposed to
the object, not in pure formal self-determination as opposed to that
which is determined, but in a unity that transcends this difference.
With him, therefore, will ceases to be regarded as the essence of
intelligence, and sinks into a property or separable attribute of it.
As we can conceive an extended substance without actual movement, so,
he says, we can conceive a thinking substance without actual volition.
But "matter or extension without motion would be entirely useless and
incapable of that variety of forms for which it is made; and we
cannot, therefore, suppose, that an all-wise Being would create it in
this way. In like manner, if a spiritual or thinking substance were
without will, it is clear that it would be quite useless, for it would
not be attracted towards the objects of its perception, and would not
love the good for which it is made. We cannot therefore conceive an
intelligent being so to fashion it."[24] Now God need not be conceived
as creating at all, for he is self-sufficient; but if he be a creator
of spirits, he must create them for himself. "God cannot will that
there should exist a spirit that does not love him, or that loves him
less than any other good."[25] The craving for good in general, for an
absolute satisfaction, is a _natural_ love of God that is common to
all. "The just, the wicked, the blessed, and the damned all alike love
God with this love." Out of this love of God arises the love we have
to ourselves and to others, which are the _natural inclinations_ that
belong to all created spirits. For these inclinations are but the
elements of the love which is in God, and which therefore he inspires
in all his creatures. "Il s'aime, il nous aime, il aime toutes ses
creatures; il ne fait donc point d'esprits qu'il ne les porte a
l'aimer, a s'aimer, et a aimer toutes les creatures."[26] Stripping
this thought of its theological vesture, what is expressed here is
simply that as a spiritual being each man is conscious of his own
limited and individual existence, as well as of the lim