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283: THE LJE A PER. [No._^17 ^ March 20,...
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ITtfivf rtfnri> sLllxTUIUlv* •—
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Critics are-not fchialQgialatora, but th...
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The higher problems of philosophy, touch...
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supposes ardent study cf original docume...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
283: The Lje A Per. [No._^17 ^ March 20,...
283 : THE LJE A PER . [ No . _^ 17 ^ March 20 , 1858 .
Ittfivf Rtfnri≫ Slllxtuiulv* •—
Wtetmxt .
Critics Are-Not Fchialqgialatora, But Th...
Critics are-not fchialQgialatora , but the judges arid police of literature . They do not ^ " nxakelaws-they interpret and try to enforce them . —Edmburglt Review .
The Higher Problems Of Philosophy, Touch...
The higher problems of philosophy , touching appearance and reality , knowledge and existence , being and knowing , and the extent to which the one is ¦ an Index or measure of the other , notwithstanding their attenuated and abstract character , seem to possess an indestructible vitality . No sooner is it imagined that the world is finally rid of them , than they return , like the ghost of Hamlet ' s father or murdered Banquo , to disturb our fancied security—to convince the sceptical , stimulate the irresolute , and appal the bold . Though continually attacked and stabbed by logical daggers in a score of places , the least of which" were death to nature , " these brainless abstractions of metaphysics will not die . Alternately derided as puerile , denounced as iiurtfiil , calmly dismissed as belonging to an outworn stage of human progress , or abandoned as beyond the range of human thought , they nevertheless
¦ continually reappear . The reason is sufficiently obvious ; the means of attack . and defence , of hurt and healing , being in reality the same . The weapon that wounds , like the spear of Achilijes , can also heal— ' Unde datum est vulnus , ¦ cotttigit inde salus . ' One part of the mind may war against another , the senses fighting against the intellect , and the intellect against the senses , but never , of course , really suffers loss by any such conflict y what is lost on . one side is gained on the other ; partial systems supplant each other , or catholic speculation restores what sectarian speculation had apparently destroyed . Reason , thus always avenges the wrongs inflicted by itself , and the body of philosophic science , though continually assailed at different points , is preserved in its integrity .
Some curious illustrations of this remedial action or reaction may be found in . the recent history of philosophy amongst ourselves . Take , for instance , M . Comte ' s system of philosophy . Positivism a few years ago excited a . great deal of attention in this country , was debated amongst scientific men , diligently studied at the universities , popularized in convenient manuals , and -accepted by a number of ardent disciples . Under its influence metaphysics was reduced , to physics , psychology to physiology . Just at the time , however , when mental seemed on the point of finally giving way in favour of material science , a philosophic work appeared , which at once abolished matter in the most summary way , derided experiment aud observation as radically delusive , and claimed for metaphysics a supreme aud despotic control throughout the « ntire ^ lomain of existence- Professor EiSifcaiEB ,, in his Theory of Knowing
and Being ; undertook to furnish a ' Euclid' of philosophy , to establish a transcendental system of metaphysics with mathematical certainty , to demonstrate in a series of propositions a doctrine of idealism of the most exalted and . absolute kind . This is , no doubt , an extreme instance , but the same general tendency may be illustrated on the lower ground of rational psychological inquiry . While one class of inquirers seem more and more disposed to consider the mind simply as brain and nerve , to degrade psychology to physiology , another class are striving to raise it into the higher regions of ontology . This is attempted both at Oxford and Edinburgh , the two philosophical centres of the empire : at Oxford , by Mr . Mansel , in his treatise Metaphysics , recently contributed to the Encyclopaedia , JBritannica , aud noticed by us three weeks ago ; at Edinburgh , by Professor Eraser , Sir W . Hamilton ' s successor , in a short treatise entitled Rational Philosophy in History and in System , lately published as an introduction to his logical and
metaphysical course . Rational philosophy , or the science of ultimate truth , has , in Professor Pjraseb ' s view , two branches—logic and metaphysics ; the former being the science of formal truth , or the harmony of thought with its own necessary conditions ; the latter , the science of real truth , or the relation of the universe to the beliefs of reason . The one investigates the capacity of thought , the other the relations of thought to existence . It is under , the latter head that the ontological tendency becomes apparent . But the Scotch Professor , faithful to his national instincts , is more cautious than the Oxford tutor . "While ho maintains that we have a diroct , ho allows at the same time that it is only a relative knowledge of roality . Ho does not , like Mr . Mansex * vindicate a knowledge of the absolute to man , or attempt to establish an ontology . The essay breathes a oalm and philosophic spirit ! , shows . considerable insight into the questions discussed , and is written in a clear , though rather stiff and abstract style . The following extract from the dosing pages will illustrate its general spirit and purpose : —
Reid and Kant in last century—Hamilton and Cousin in this—on a liberal Interpretation , and with a duo allowance for the individuality of each , have sown the seeds of that latest growth of the Catholic Philosophy of Insoluble Realism , which is now in progress to maturity . It is a Philosophy which rccognissea both the Montul Power and the Mental Impotence of man ; and which professes to rear the fabric of philosophical doctrine on the universal facts of our conscious experience , —wbother or '« K > TrtKSSrp c ^ l > y * W ^ —UnriiTtlfer genius of thia Philosophy to decline , as beyond ita scope , the Transcendental Problems which have brought sceptics and dogmatists into collision , in Metaphysics , Theology , and the other fields of intellectual labour , while it gathers wisdom and insight from tttose collisions . Oatbolic Koallsm is the preparation for a thorough-going application of the Novum Okganum to own whole ) conscious liithj , —and not merely to the phenomena of the external world , contingently presented to oonfldoaaness . ' It involves . an . application of the modern Mothod , to Metaphysics and Theology , and not merely to Physics , and Social Scienoo . It is human knowledge held and extended in the aplrit of Socrates , and Bacon , and Pascal .
Supposes Ardent Study Cf Original Docume...
supposes ardent study cf original documents , a personal interest in the debate , a sum of doctrinal knowledge , and , above all , experience and comprehension of the requirements of the present time . There are two kinds of historical writing popular now-a-days : that which paints past events in colours borrowed from past times , and attempts no 'improvements '—the most perfect in an artistic point of view ; and that which wrings instruction from the chaotic mass of chronicled incidents , and disengages the progress or the conflict of ideas from the facts by which they are at once signified and obscured . Were M . Lanfrey to write a regular history , he would probabl y belong to the latter school ; and he would employ the charms of his style rather to draw a moral than to develop a drama . As it is , we find this Essay on the French Meoolution , small as is its compass , to be a complete and excellent narrative of the development of political ideas from the convocation of the States General to the Convention .
M . LANFREY ON THE FRENCH REVOLUTION . Essai sur la Revolution Frangaisa . Par 1 ? . Lanfrey . Paris : Chauierot One of the most remarkable characteristics of the French Revolution is the enormous number of commentaries it has produced . They increase day by day . Already , no ordinary library . could contain this one department of political literature . Each generation , almost every member of each veneration , has peculiar views of this most important epoch in the history of France No wonder . At that time were discussed or put in practice all the monieni tous princip les which are still at work , producing a new society out of the corruption of an old one . M . Lanfrey ' s book , despite all that has been already said on this frequently studied but not exhausted subject , is as individual as if he hud no predecessors . This is perhaps the highest praise we can give it . To be new in treating of things which everyone has treated before is no easy task . It
It is not- necessary for us to take part with M . Lanfrey in all his judgments . He is sometimes severe , and loves to strike at personages who have been the bugbears and the scarecrows of opposing parties for half ix century . A republican by education , by tendency , by conviction—or rather a liberal who has received the whole inheritance of the eighteenth century—he approaches Robespierre with a stiff' neck and a stubborn knee , and having examined him on every side , points to him with mocking-finger and exclaims : " What ! is this unhappy bigot , this virtuous fanatic , this narrow-minded , cold-hearted purveyor of the guillotine , with the best intentions , to be our type ? Shall we , by adopting his name as our watchword , deliberately condemn ourselves for evermore to be classed in the minds of all quiet and respectable citizens as assassins ? What did he do for us ? Whither did his policy tend ? We might have forgiven the blood he shed , had he shown us a noble result . But as his means were tyranny , so his end was slavery . Freedom and he had never anything in common . It is monstrous to talk of
his dictatordhip as the logical result of * the revolution . On thu . contrary , ' twas its exaggeration and its death . When he thought he was giving the last blow to privilege , he was like a man furiously stabbing a corpse lyng since lifeless . His cruelties were nearly all unnecessary . Therefore , they must be condemned without appeal . " We hasten to say that this is merely an interpretation of M . Lnnfrey ' s remarkable chapter in which he gives the coup de // race to the Mountain . It is a significant and hopeful symptom that a young writer should venture on this bold line at the present moment , when , by a sort of foolish sentiini'iitulism among opponents of the present regime in France , it is attempted to be
made etiquette not to attack anything that has gone before , lest strength be given to what is . The stagnation of ideas which this hollow courtesy produced required to be stirred . But courage to do so would not have been found if a new generation were not coming on the scene . There-is nothing so damaging in politics as the influence of old men who have once been the heroes of thtj day . There are exceptional cases . Some men never grow old . But as a rule , however ungracious it may seem to say so , living celebrities and dead celebrities must be put upon the shelf before any progress can be made . It is the office of criticism to perform this disagreeable duty . M . Lanfrey has done good service in separating the cause of Liberalism from the causu of the Mountain and its apologists .
The reason of the sensation which his work has caused in all thinking circles in Paris is precisely the moderation of its opinions . This moderation has nothing to do with compromise ; neither is it the moderation of indifference . It consists in a calm and wise way of viewing the events of an eventful period , of disengaging principles from ciroumstnnces , and of judging the actions of men in their bearings on the general progress of Immunity rather than in their temporary effects . This Essay on the French li' -ruliiftoii . should become the manual of all young politicians in France ; it should be read hero , us giving the key to many uiiigmut * and as likely to di . spi'l many prejudices . Englishmen are too apt to wonder at the passionate attachment of till that is young and generous and enlightened for a period which is usually painted as n gloomy drama—fertile in emotions , it is truu , but of terror , not of uyinpathy . In this book , butter than any other thnt we know of , the true moaning of the great convulsion which closed the Just < : cwitury in I'Vnnco ia explained . Wo hore see clearly how the cry and tho passion
for equality , fuvourud by circumstuncea , overeamo and stilled for a tnnu tlio cry and tho passion for liberty ; but we see also that the French Revolution , being produced by a ountury of frets thinking , was essentially n movumont in favour of freedom . This truth has almost nlwuys been obscured , huoauso nearly all who have written of the Revolution of Into , whether purti . sniis or opponents , huvo belonged to schools which regard tho individual nnin us nothing , mid think only of tho JStuto . But it is evident to any ono who TeTrdTOTaWYir ^ declaration of the 'Rights of Man , ' that tho idea of liberty wiw as cloiirly in the ' minds of thoao legialutora , hurriedly chosen from amid . it u public accustomed to practise servility , but who hud long been taught to drown ot bettor things , as it was in tho minds of tho founders of tho Amoriqnn liepublic . Tno rouaon of tho disproportionate importance which the idoa ot equality—tho buno of France—by degrees acquired wag tho exiatoiiuo 01 numerous privileges far more gulling and oirensivo than the royal powcr » ngninst which the chief effort of the iiuvolution was directed . Idoua muy 1 > Q
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 20, 1858, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_20031858/page/18/
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