GIOBERTI, VINCENZO (ante), 1801-52, an Italian statesman and philosopher, the great object of whose life was the deliverance of his country. This, in his conception of it, included emancipation not only from foreign armed force, but also from foreign modes of thought, which were contrary to its genius and destructive to its authority in, European affairs. That authority he regarded as connected with the supremacy of the papacy—its intellectual and moral supremacy, rather than its political domination. This distinction must be kept in mind by all who would understand either the of Gioberti or his life. In order to commend the priests to popular regard, he advised them to put themselves at the head of the social movement, introduce needed reforms and diffuse instruction. He also called on the educated men of Italy to regain former ascendency by uniting faith with knowledge. With this object in view he wrote• his remarkable work on the civil and moral supremacy of Italy, in which he considers civilization as vitally connected with religion. The substance of the book is: " Italy has been twice at the head of European civilization; once in ancient times, and again; in the middle ages. In the latter period it owed its position to the popes, who were then the natural arbiters of princes and the spiritual sovereigns of the nations. The downfall of Italy is due to the downfall of the papacy. The problem now is to restore the papal power, as a moral dominion, based on religion and public opinion." In his most important work, The introduction to philosophy, Gioberti teaches "that the source of all human knowledge is in God, that it is one whole and, in a manner, identical with God himself." The name which he gives it is, The Idea or Thought. " This is com municated to man in proportion as he is capable of receiving it, and is ' the light which: enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world.' Man receives it by his reason,. which is capable of directly beholding it, and this intuition of the idea is the origin and! first cause of all the knowledge of natural things which the mind of man possesses. IE rises to the mind at the same moment as the thought which apprehends it; yet it does not rise within the mind, but enters it from without. It is the principle of knowledge to the human mind, from the very first exercise of its powers as a thinking being. Yet this direct intuition of the divine thought by the reason, although the origin of all. thoughts in the soul, is by itself imperfect. In order to render it available it must. be reflected on; and in order to reflection language is necessary. For this purpose language • was given, by means of which God originally reveals to man that which he had caused. him to behold by direct intuition, and by means of which also this same revelation is repeated and carried on from generation to generation. Yet language is not the cause of human knowledge; nor is it, in the case of ordinary knowledge, the medium of the exhibition of the divine thought to the mind (for that shines immediately on the mind) but it is the occasion of its being completely revealed For the purposes of ordinary and natural knowledge the combination of intuition with language is the method ordained; but supernatural knowledge can be conveyed only by means of language, and divine truths are not seen by intuition but are believed. Yet all knowledge, of every kind, has its source in the divine thought, and consists of such views Of it as the individual is capable of. Besides reason, which is capable of beholding the divine thought, wan
has internal and spiritual feelings that are modifications of the mind and are preserved by feeling, and material and external feelings, that have reference fo4e properties of • bodies and are perceived by sensation and the outward senses. The ordinary range of modern metaphysics is confined to these internal and external feelings; and it is a common error to substitute the internal feeling as a first principle instead of that which is apprehended by the reason through direct intuition and revealed to the soul by language and reflection. It is an equally common error to substitute reflection on the internal and external feelings for reason as the initiatory instrument of that knowledge which is the basis of philosophy. But it is by the intuition of the divine thought that meaning is imparted to these various feelings, external and internal, and to the various sensible objects by which they are surrounded. The basis of all knowledge is the knowledge of being, yet not of its abstract idea but of the personal Being, God himself acting as a cause and producing existences. He is in fact the only being, because he alone has being in himself. The knowledge of this Being is gained by revelation through the written word, wherein he declares himself, " Iam that Iam;" and the mind beholds him and has him made known to it internally through the reason, independently of all external sensations. God being the only Being, all other things are only exist ences; and man learns from the revealed word that the One being creates existences; not that he extends himself into these various manifestations, as Hegel says, not that he causes them to emanate from himself, as other pantheists say, but that he creates them. Mau thus learns that they are individual, real things, having a kind of personality; that the act of creation gives them this reality and individuality; and that nothing but the 2ct of creation could assure to him the reality of external things. All knowledge of philosophy must begin with a knowledge of beings and existences and of their relation to each other; and that, not of abstract being and existences, but of one concrete Being and of many concrete individual existences. And a knowledge of these latter the divine thought gives to man by a direct view of them which imparts life and meaning to all his sensations and feelings in connection with them. The principles of knowledge are objective, eternal and absolute; not the creation of the mind, nor sought out by it, but presenting themselves to it, unsought, as first truths—the foundation of other truths. The permanent possession by man of the divine thought depends, in a measure, on himself; he may consent to it and obey it and thus secure it; or may rebel against it and thus lose it. It is by participation of it that individuals possess a moral personality; it is the vital principle, the entire withdrawal of which would result in annihilation. As it creates and governs the universe, it is the soul of the world; as it dwells in the human mind, it is knowledge; as it actuates, produces, determines, and classifies the powers of nature, it is the generic and specific essence of things; and the basis of gener ality is the divine Being himself, having in himself the ideas of all possible things and the power of giving effect to those ideas."