Without limit, hence without time, without space, man can have no conception of the form and exact nature thereof. He is conscious it is, believes it infinite, all-mighty, all-wise, there his mental universe ends. So is he admonished, "Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther." Thus adaptation shows-as it reveals the unbridgeable interval between the human being and the lower creation-the limit of man, the distance that lies between his God and him, and shows there is a God. We discuss the question now in another and slightly different aspect. Man. Man is a human being, capable in the highest degree attainable by human power of self-knowledge; hence, as is indicated by Fichte, of the greatest self-command and morality. If all human beings were in this condition it would result that all would be equally moral, equally just, equally generous, equally supplied with the means of livelihood and equally happy, and all would live in concord. Now suppose, as far as possible, a human being arrived at this condition, what would be his notion of the Infinite Intelligence and Power? Now the high spiritual state I conceive, is an inherent, inextinguishable consciousness of some power, mysterious, the nature impossible to conceive, yet-because of our very reason-felt, as it were, to exist; which with the increase and perfection of our reason, becomes more and more definitely fixed, a Being All Powerful, necessarily all-wise, omnipresent, and omniscient. This process of reasoning, or, rather, the mental state which is synonymous with this high spirituality, may, in some respects, be assimilated to the process of thinking by virtue of which, as the positive becomes clearer and more definite, the negative, correlatively, becomes clearer and more definite; yet, in attaining this state of spirituality there is not hard, cheerless thought, but a moral spirit implicated. I think to the farthermost limit of my thinking self, and I find a boundary; I look out, objectively, at the existence around me and I find, that without eternal life there is a boundary, and until the human being acquires eternal life there must be a boundary; I conceive the process of my thinking and I am conscious it is conditioned, it is relative, and so impressed with the notion of my limit, I ask myself, can there be a state of no limit for the human being? and I must answer, no! But behind my thinking I am always bound by an intuitive notion of absoluteness existent, and this absoluteness, by virtue of the state it must have,-since there is power-must embrace all power, but the nature, or, if you will, the real form of that power cannot conceive. I am satisfied with the consciousness of that power, the all-powerful, the all-wise. Now this being the highest spirituality, when acquired I inherently, purely worship God.* We will close the inquiry by two further quotations: I "From the time the first sentient, reflecting being, distinguished as a human being, existed, the world-that is, man's world-was; not *From my "Essay on Religion, from a Historical and Philosophical Standpoint," p. 10. Block & Co., Cincinnati, O. 1876. before. Then we say the world began with the first human being. This world is man's; it does not comprehend the world beyond man; that is, the world of some Superior Power or Being." "Man recognizes nothing, and doubts the possibility of anything existing, except in the divine shape, superior to himself anywhere. But some thing or being superior does exist, which in man's world is the Divine Being, the Almighty Power, whose world is not man's."t ST. LOUIS, Mo. MORRIS M. COHN. Method of Instruction in Intellectual Philosophy in Hamilton College, Clinton, New York. President Porter's Four terms are given to Philosophical studies in Hamilton College, viz: one to Logic (Prof. Frink,) junior year; two to Psychology, (Prof. Mears,) and one to Moral Philosophy, (the President,) senior year. In the branch of Psychology, Sir William Hamilton's Lectures (Bowen's edition) is the principal text book. "Elements" are used as supplementing Hamilton's "Doctrine of Perception," also as a substitute for the Scotch philosopher's very inadequate treatment of Imagination. President Porter's summaries of the History of the Doctrines of Perception, and of the Concept, are also used. Perhaps twenty lectures are given by the "Albert Barnes" Professor of Intellectual Philosophy, Prof. Mears. during the course, on Philosophy contemporaneous with and subsequent to Sir William, including a review of Mr. Mill's criticisms and an examination of the opinions of Comte, Spencer, Bain, and others of the modern English school. The main object of the lectures is to acquaint the student with the present phases of philosophical thought. In order to develop more fully the original activity of the students' minds, questions suggested by the text book or lectures, for debate, are assigned by the professor of Intellectual Philosophy at regular intervals. While the text book is considered necessary to securing the concentrated and faithful attention of students in undergraduate classes, the development of original activity is also carefully provided for. This is secured in the department of psychology principally by means of debates on topics suggested by the text books or lectures, and assigned by the professor, in which every member of the class is required to take a part. The class is divided alphabetically into sections of six members. Each section is seasonably notified of the topic on which it is expected to debate. Sides are determined by lot. Seven or eight minutes are allowed to each disputant; the speaking is extempore. A few remarks are added by the professor. The exercise takes the place of a lecture or recitation, and occurs about once *Ibid., p. 2. † Ibid., pp. 2–3. in two weeks. Usually it elicits a lively interest in the class, and many bright and subtle thoughts scintillate around the well-sustained war of opinions. In order to a suitable preparation for the debate, the professor indicates the authorities on each side and gives hints as to the principal points. Among our most interesting questions are such as the following: "Is Philosophy the Most Useful of Studies?" Affirmative: Morell's Hist. Spec. Phil. Sec. 2; Porter's Human Intellect § 9-15. Negative: Lewes' History Introd. and p. 769 (Appleton's ed.) "Have we a Knowledge of the Infinite?" Aff., Porter's Elements, p. 550 to end, Calderwood's Philosophy of the Infinite, chap. 3, also pp. 379-387, 397-406, 428-436, McCosh's Intuitions, 186-201, note pp. 194, 195, Mill's Exam. I., p. 61-68, 102-124, Am. ed. Negative: Hamilton's Discussions, Mansell's Limits, lect. 2, 3, 4. "Is sight or touch the more important, in gaining a knowledge of the external world?" Affirmative: Hamilton's Reid, note E, p. 917, Helmholtz' Popular Scientific Lectures, p. 270, Am. ed., Locke's Essay, 2, 9-9. Negative: Porter's Elements, pp. 120-126, 154-164, Stewart's Elem., Vol. 1, 5, 2, §1, Thos. Brown, Lect. 29, Bain's Sense and Intellect, p. 366-373. "Is all Human Knowledge derived from Experience?" Affirmative: Mill's Exam., Vol. I., p. 80, 181-189, 307-321, Bain's Mental Science, p. 181, Appendix, p. 33, Ribot's English Psychology, pp. 100-104, 170, Lewes on Hume, Hist.. p. 577, Mill's Logic, II., ch. 5-6, Locke's Essay and Exam. of Malebranche. Negative McCosh's Intuitions, pp. 20, 280; Defense of Fundamental Truth, p. 251; Hamilton's Reid, 749-754; Amer. Presb. Quar. Rev., July, 1868, Jan., 1866; April and July, 1869; Mansell's Metaph., 66, 248; Battle of the two Philosophies. See Littell's Living Age, 4th Series, Vol. 15, p. 451. A small optional class in the original of Plato's Phædo is always secured toward the end of senior year, which is conducted by the Professor of Intellectual Philosophy. CLINTON, N. Y. J. W. M. BOOK NOTICES. Table Talk. By A. Bronson Alcott. Boston: Roberts Brothers. 1877. In the first part, or "Book I." we have under the head of "Practical," a series of eight chapters in which the paragraphs are classified as relating to I., Learning; II., Enterprise; III., Pursuits; IV., Nurture; V., Habits; VI., Discourse; VII., Creeds; VIII., Interleaves. The second part, or “ Book II." includes suggestions on I., Method; II., Genesis; III., Person; IV., Lapse; V., Immortality. We purposely call his treatment of the themes "suggestions," because it is of the nature of "Table-Talk" to consist of suggestions rather than to be full and exhaustive; desultory rather than systematic. There is however this great difference between the table-talk of Mr. Alcott and the other table-talks so named: While the latter relate to themes of gossip, social or literary, or at best contain flashes of humor and critical insight, Mr. Alcott's table-talk relates to things sub specie æternitatis and is such as Tantalus might have heard at Olympian tables. In fact, as we look over the topics we see that the mystic philosopher has figured himself as sitting at a table of books and as conversing with the wits of all time-or rather as listening to their conversation and assisting in it himself. Young people of enterprise often sit down with a famous book in their hands to try and discover what rare quality it is which has recommended the book to wise and great men. Their efforts are very disheartening. The book is dull, its topics seem remote from all present interest. Why should any one now be interested in such remarks and upon such themes? And yet the verdict of the great thinkers is that that very book is superlatively excellent. Is it written, then, in cypher, so that only the few initiated souls understand it? To the inquisitive youth who desires to solve the problems of life and wishes above all to know what this secret thing called wisdom is-such a book as Mr. Alcott's is a timely gift. Let him sit down and listen to the table-talk and to the comments of Mr. Alcott, who is one of the peers, and talks from as high a level as any one of the bidden guests. And who are the guests that sit at Mr. Alcott's table? They are not the "standard authors" found on the shelf in every cottage. But their list forms a part of the choice collection which Time has selected and indexed and which he keeps carefully dusted. They are Pythagoras, Plato, Proclus, Plotinus, Jamblichus, Plutarch, Marcus Aurelius, Krishna Dwaipayana (author of the Bhagavad Gita), Simonides, Cicero, Hermes Trismegistus, St. Augustine, Montaigne, Ficinus, Van Eelmont, Erasmus, Dante, Glanvil, Novalis, Shaftesbury, Herbert, Dryden, Bacon, Henry More, Leighton, Cudworth, Jacobi, Bohme, Oersted, Milton, Law, Evelyn, Kant, Richter, Wordsworth, Thoreau, Agassiz, Coleridge, Berkeley, Carlyle, Emerson, and a great company of equally rare spirits. At this table the youth may taste of the Seer's Rations-the ambrosial food upon which poets are fed. Mr. Alcott has described this diet in the following quaint poem: [The Poet or Seer] "Takes sunbeams, Spring waters, Earth's juices, meads' creams, Bathes in floods of sweet ethers, Comes baptized from the streams; With Samian fable, Sage seasoned from cruets Of Plutarch's chaste table. Pledges Zeus, Zoroaster, Suns, globes, on his trencher, The elements there. Bowls of sunrise for breakfast Brimful of the East, Foaming flagons of frolic Sovereign solids of nature Surprising as rare. Thus baiting his genius, Feeds thus and thus fares he, Life's long euthanasies Transfigured, translated- Saint, poet, priest, student, Philosopher, he." This diet, which is so inspiring to poets, is found to be so dull and uninteresting by the ordinary reader as to exasperate him and cause him to express his disappointment in unmeasured terms. Doubtless, in this realm of literature each one may choose for himself his own table. If not pleased with his viands he can easily take others. Still for the youth who desires to make thorough work, and correctly estimate the utterances of the men who have borne so great a reputation for wisdom, it is not quite sufficient to read the label "Ueberwundene Standpunkt" and pass by on the other side. What is this standpoint which once had validity and is now outgrown? Are our literary critics as wise in their day and generation as the scientists with whom they affect to affiliate? Do they take lessons of Darwin and of the Darwinians in Ethnology, Philology and Civil History? Is not this historical method the true scientific method as expounded by Hæckel and Huxley and Tyndall? Its method is valid not only in the study of plants and the lower animals; in the evolution of human civilization from savagery; of language from inarticulate cries, but also of ideas and the primordial archetypes of principles upon which have been built the institutions, creeds, and literary conventionalisms of the world. If a young man aspires to be a scientific man, and to understand his theme, he does not hesitate to study with the utmost diligence and affectionate interest the accessories and their historical catenation. There are too many young men who set up for literary critics without feeling the same broad scientific interest in literature and its accessories. They are not the botanist but the gardener's hired man, who cares not a fig for any plant except his beets and cabbages. Anything else—be it a Victoria Regia that has sprouted accidentally between the cabbages, is only a pestilent weed, and is at once to be pruned with the hoe. Such rough work is necessary in the market gardens in order that we may have our salad at the noonday meal, but such work in the literary garden has no good purpose at all. It spreads a narrow literary bigotry which is conceited enough to believe that the true canon of criticism is its own individual taste: "That is good because I like it." The prevailing literary fashion is set up as the true standard of nature. |