Excerpt from The Philosophy of Gassendi
The atmosphere of comprehensive learning which gives a peculiar charm to these volumes cannot be reproduced elsewhere: it is the breath of an age which every day puts further from us. In compensation for this loss I can only plead the advantages of conciseness. Time works toward the setting forth of the skeleton with the destruction of all else, and in the world of books we take an optimistic view of this unavoidable process and trust that it leaves us what is most enduring and most essential.
That Gassendi deserves honourable mention in the history of philosophy will hardly be doubted. How far he is able to help in the solution of its problems is a point that the reader will estimate for himself. Now that we are recovering somewhat from that disturbance of equilibrium which characterised the development of Cartesianism, such work as that of Gassendi has an opportunity of asserting itself more effectively. If we pause to ask what is the true and abiding characteristic of a philosophic mind we shall see that it is comprehensiveness of view, breadth of vision, combined with a power to see, and not merely look at, the vast array of the knowable. This comprehensiveness makes greatness: through it a man may be the spectator of all times and places.
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