The Palace and Park by Phillips, Forbes, Latham, Owen, Scharf, and Shenton

Shares with Bacon the title of Father of Modern Philosophy. All the metaphysical writers follow him, as the men of the physical sciences follow Bacon. He was only three and twenty when, whilst with his regiment on the Danube, he determined to reform philosophy. To do so, he resolved to efface from his mind all that he had learnt, and to admit nothing that could not be demonstrated by reason and experience. With him, consciousness was the sole _basis_, mathematics the sole _method_, of certainty. He substituted the philosophy of reason for that of authority. His genius for the great sciences, and his superiority over the majority of his contemporaries in scientific acquirements, were remarkable. He first applied algebra to geometry; he likewise made observations on the decline of the magnetic needle, put forward the true theory of the rainbow, and brought the science of optics within the domain of mathematics. His influence over his age was great, though his writings involved him in controversies. But he was timid as a man. He wrote a book on astronomy, but destroyed it on learning the fate of Galileo. He was the first great master of French prose. It is said of him, that he began by doubting everything, and ended by believing that he had left nothing unexplained.