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CLAVIS UNIVERSALIS

that the external world cannot be an object of sense since the idea which we perceive must be intimately united to the mind and hence cannot be of a different nature.[1] But whereas Malebranche still clings to this vague unknown something as cause of sensible ideas, Collier claims that the very existence of body lies in its being perceived.

But despite its close dependence upon the theories of Des Cartes and Malebranche, the "Clavis" refers much more closely to the system of Norris. John Norris, rector of Bemerton, near Sarum, had apparently received much the same philosophical education as Collier, that is, he had a knowledge of the early Greeks through the Schoolmen, and a familiarity with the modern French philosophers. His "Theory of the Ideal or Intelligible World," is designed to complete the system of Malebranche, who, as Norris thought, had not carried sufficiently far his theory that "all things are seen in God." To quote his own words, "Mr. Malebranche has ventured the farthest of any that I know of upon this Discovery [into the Ideal World.] . . . But even this great Apelles has drawn the Celestial Beauty but halfway."[2] Although Norris in reality only enlarges upon Malebranche's doctrines instead of pressing this "Discovery" to its logical conclusion, his book is valuable to students of idealistic

  1. ↑ "Recherche de la Verité," Livre 3me, 2nde Partie, Chap. I.
  2. ↑ An Essay towards the Theory of the Ideal or Intelligible World," by John Norris, Rector of Bemerton, London, 1701-1704, Part I, p. 4.
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