*724 THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF

inconsistent with any degree of happiness in this life; andheaven was to be earned only by penance and mortification,by the austerities and abasement of a monk; not by the li-beral, generous, and spirited conduct of a man. Casuistryand an ascetic morality made up, in most cases, the greaterpart of the moral philosophy of the schools. By far the mostimportant of all the different branches of philosophy, becamein this manner by far the most corrupted.

Such, therefore, was the common course of philosophicaleducation in the greater part of the universities in Europe .Logic was taught first: Ontology came in the second place :Pneumatology , comprehending the doctrine concerning thenature of the human soul and of the Deity , in the third : inthe fourth followed a debased system of moral philosophy,which was considered as immediately connected with thedoctrines of Pneumatology , with the immortality of the hu-man soul, and with the rewards and punishments which, fromthe justice of the Deity , were to be expected in a life to come:a short and superficial system of physics usually concludedthe course. ,

The alterations which the universities of Europe thus in-troduced into the ancient course of philosophy were all meantfor the education of ecclesiastics, and to render it a moreproper introduction to the study of theology. But the addi-tional quantity of subtlety and sophistry; the casuistry andthe ascetic morality which those alteration’s introduced into it,certainly did not render it more proper for the education ofgentlemen or men of the world, or more likely either to im-prove the understanding, or to mend the heart.

This course of philosophy is what still continues to betaught in the greater part of the universities of Europe , withmore or less diligence, according as the constitution of eachparticular university happens to render diligence more or lessnecessary to the teachers. In some of the richest and bestendowed universities, the tutors content themselves withteaching a few unconnected shreds and parcels of this cor-rupted course; and even these they commonly teach verynegligently and superficially.

The improvements which, in modern times, have beenmade in several different branches of philosophy, have not,the greater part of them, been made in universities ; thoughsome no doubt have. The greater part of universities havenot even been very forward to adopt those improvements,