The National Register. — London, England, 1814-05-29 00:00:00

TUE NATIONAL Our tfng, tonatitutiOn,• anti tato. FRENCH PHILOSOPHY. PUBLISHED AT NO. 11, NEWCNSTLE-STREET STRAND. PRierf)(l Nn.3jl. Perhaps there is no Word in the range of human infatu ation that, during the 18th century, has tended to do ceive mankind more than•the term Philose7liy, divested by modern improvements of its classic atire : the guest of political maniacs, or of rr” al sophists, it has been in duced to quit its shades for fields of blood or palaces of delight, and to use •another language than that of na ture.' Systems of menial regeneration, founded upon the mysticism of the passions,—a kind of holy raving_ about equal rights, and unequalled freedom, have buried, for mrs to come, the altars of experience, and -deluged the world with new codes of moral obligation, too relined for practice, and too - delusive for common understandings. Perhaps we owe to .what was, formerly called " regene rated prance;" the .practieal application of these new fangled principles—and the elensinean mysteries of an cient Greece furnished •an intelligent protOype for the modern or ,, ,ies of the seeplie and the _democilt. TheSe delusions were not a little assisted by the literary cotviie, who, in their search after a more perfect language,. found it necessary to change the nomenclature of wisdom; and, in giving new namo, to give tic - Nv dirtielThrtN, to the pls fiions and habits of mittikind. These teachers of wit-dm, it is' true, who were seen parading-the portico of the Fcheols at one hour, or declaiming from the. forum the next, and ilealin4 in what -few people did not comprehend ; or had not patience to detect, fouvd disciples in the ignorant, and offsets in the profane ; mud. ) in the end, 'became the successful founders of a new dynast-y in the race of phi. losophers, that overturned the legitimate empire cf rea son. These system-mongers, as If abi,amet of their design, how ever, still continued to deal out thy: hyperbole of praise upon all that the collective wisdom of ages had kit xis—with the distinction of those compound epithets that should most. contribute to enhance their knowledge and in genuity.—llence we had the philosophy of religion—the philosophy of politics:--and the philosophy of the mind : so that nelvetius was found to supercede Bacon in the moral faculty of developing the human inte4leeti who alone had dited the commencement and progress of that demon strative principle, that " knowledge is wisdom." It is the observation of au enlightened historian, 64 that nearer we approach to perfect cMl:zation, the fur ther we are removed from the virtues that adorn and strengthen human nature." But it was left for our period to be the shame and boaFt of a tnaxim, that raises or de grades the dignity of the mind to u level ith tita I)A:tr. rvation. 11. No. CCCXXXI. t‹. • • S UNDA NIA Y Isl 4 Tlyse speculative theorems were, however, compara !ive!) innocent, when confined to the closet of the entliu siaA, or the cell of the monk :—but the moment it was attairpted to give them a practical effect—to disorganize the received opinions of time—and to dispose of 63 immutable otlices c.f. truth—it became the duty of every reasorrable being to detect and expose the imposture, awl to 11 UN vil the horrid conspiracy that was formed to destroy the happiness of 'mankind. A spirit of suspicio; was, however, golte forth ; the decripittule and corrupiicu of some governments, and the culpable negligence of others, were speedily under, mined by the dogmas of the new school. The metaphysi cians of Germany. were soon innoculated with the aerial infections of the French philosophy; and the gratuitous offerings of atheists and mystics, fraternized with the orthodox heresies of Kotzebue and Geutz. The come. quences might have been easily foreseen with such auxili aries, , when nations, fond of the marvellous and the extra vagant, received their sultjnqators as deliyerer4, and were not awakened trot!) their dream t until the wei s ht of their chains told them they were slaves. It was not, became as weary of their tlAt a new impulse was given to enquiry, and a deadly' blow • lee cited -all these moral reformers. • - The exposure of this stenta: binulness produced the re-action of her forwr system,. and the convulsion that threatened to ile , tiuv, has but replaced the former elements of sound and uscfLl inlestigation. We cannot 'sow., hoirevcr, without' Pain, Cat 1“. , •:e it ;.,till much hunkering with certain person'; after the ineon. ceivable nothingnegs of the universal philosophy, alai that new attempts are daily made to te.:oncile the disap. pointmcuts of anthesis with -the brilliant character of supernatural attainments. French philosopl:y is IC ' ways the same ; but : however Proteus like.. t . may change its appearance, its designs are still the, l int—, and ' always contending for the - 'powers of isit'-exclu- I • sive intellect, sees nothing but progressive improvement lin barbarism, and new beauties in disorganization. They l are the optimists of that wouilerfu! system that shall in. troduce happiness with a storm, and the moral aputhco. iis of the : passions in the .bipod-staiued garments of op:rie and confiscation. 1 1 The state of our own hopes and expereations is eal..u. ii lated fora :different wra. We are satis;icd with cconnwn i ( 1 1 men and corn Mon• systems—what has been wOl .lone by Alters, we have no objection to Wow ; 4 : .,41 we woula r& 4 tle- take the I,:ink/iag light 'f Uas . :vil ifor PW guioev I T ...it 1 !•• t 7 1 _ --: .!...i.^•*. however,.,Ats►til the Continent beta "philoadriters as their conquProrqr REGISTER. A