436 COUSIN COUSSEMAKEE posing his volumes of Fragments de philoso- hie ancienne, Fragments de philosophic scho- '.stique, Fragments de philosophic moderne, Fragments litteraires, and other collections, first appeared. His other chief philosophical publications are, an introduction to the history of philosophy (1828), a history of philosophy in the 18th century (1829), a translation of Ten- nemann's history of philosophy (1829), a trea- tise on the metaphysics of Aristotle (1838), lectures on the philosophy of Kant (1842), lec- tures on moral philosophy delivered between 1816 and 1820 (1840-'41), a work entitled Du i>rai, du beau, et du Men (1853), and editions of the Sic et Non of Abelard (1836), of the works of Maine de Biran (1834- '41), of the Pemees of Pascal (1842), of the works of Andre (1843), and of the works of Abelard (1849). One of the most acceptable fruits of his research is the re- covery of the original MS. of the Pensees sur la religion of Pascal. The biography of Jacqueline Pascal (1845) is founded chiefly on inedited or unknown documents. As a philosopher, the Elan of Cousin was to publish systems, and oin systems to deduce an eclectic philosophy. The reason, in his view, has spontaneous con- sciousness of absolute truths, and furnishes to the mind ideas of infinite objects which could not be formed by any power of abstraction from observation of particular, finite, and con- tingent things ; to know these ideas is the aim of philosophy, and the reason would be perfect- ly cognizant of them if it were not misled by the senses, passions, and imagination. There is something true in every system of philoso- phy, since error can never reach to utter ex- travagance ; this element of truth exists in the reason, and may be found by impartial exami- nation of the consciousness, and of the history of humanity. From the drama of changing systems, which is the history of philosophy, let the truth which constitutes the positive side of every system be taken, exclusive of what- ever constitutes its negative and false side; the ideas thus obtained will furnish a spectacle of the universal consciousness, and will be the sum of eclectic philosophy. If the question be raised concerning the authority of the reason, and the certainty that its ideas are universal truths, Cousin, in order to answer, passes from psychology to ontology. Human reason, he says, is not a part of the human personality, but in its nature impersonal, absolute, and in- fallible, the logos of Pythagoras and Plato, a mediator between God and man; its qualities are those precisely opposed to individuality, namely, universality and necessity; and its spontaneous ideas rightly understood are reve- lations of a world unknown to man. This theory finds its completion in theodicy. As every phenomenon implies a substance, as our faculties, volitions, and sensations imply a per- son to whom they belong, so absolute truths have their last foundation in an absolute being, and ideal truth, beauty, and goodness are not mere abstractions, but are the attributes of the in- finite Being whom we call God. Cousin was more learned than original. He was alter- nately under the influence of the Scotch and German schools of philosophy, and did not found any well defined school of his own. His eclecticism does not survive him. Yet he gave to abstruse subjects the charm of his vivid and eloquent style, and will always be remember- ed as a metaphysician and psychologist. The last 15 years of his life were devoted to his- tories and biographies illustrating French so- ciety in the 17th century. His series of stud- ies on Mine, de Longueville (1853), Mme. de Sable (1854), Mme. de Chevreuse and Mme. de Hautefort (1856), and that entitled La so- ciete francaise au XVII* siecle, d'apres le Grand Cyrus de Mile, de Scudery (1858), have the same elevation of thought and sentiment, the same poetical and eloquent style, which mark his discussions and histories of philoso- phy. His later works are : Histoire generale de philosophic (1864), La jeunesse de Mme. de Longuemlle j(4th ed., enlarged, 1864), and La jeunesse de Mazarin (1865). A complete edi- tion of his works up to that time was published in 1847, in 22 vols. Cousin was economical even to parsimony, and accumulated a con- siderable fortune. His library, containing 14,- 000 volumes, especially rich in memorials of the 17th century, was bequeathed to the college of the Sorbonne, with a fund for its preservation. A monument to his memory was erected in the courtyard of the Sorbonne, March 1, 1873. The principal American editions of Cousin's philosophical writings are the "Introduction to the History of Philosophy," translated by Henning Gottfried Linberg (Boston, 1832); the " Elements of Psychology," from his lec- tures, by C. S. Henry (Hartford, 1834; lasted., New York, 1856) ; selections from his works, with introductory and critical notices, in Kip- ley's "Philosophical Miscellanies" (Boston, 1838); his "Course of Modern Philosophy," by 6. W. Wight (New York, 1855); his "Lec- tures on the True, the Beautiful, and the Good," also by O. W. Wight (New York, 1857) ; and a portion of the memoirs and stud- ies, under the title of "Secret History of the French Court under Richelieu and Mazarin," by Mary L. Booth (New York, 1858). COUSIN-MONTAUBAN. SeePALiKAO, COUNT DE. COUSSEMAKER, Charles Kdmoiid Henri de, a French author, born at Bailleul, April 19, 1805. He studied law, held administrative positions at Cambrai, became a judge at Dunkirk, and sub- sequently removed to Lille, where he devoted himself to archaeology and its relations to music. His residence being near the Belgian frontier, he became a member of the learned societies of that country, chairman of the com- mittee on the study of the Flemish language, and correspondent of the ministry of the interior on historical matters. Among his works are : Histoire de V harmonic au moyen dge (1852); Chants populaires des Flamands de France (Ghent, 1856); Drames liturgiques au moyen
