The Sun.
London, England, 1852-01-30 00:00:00

THE

THE QUARTF,',IILIE.

THE EDINBUPGII BEVIE IV. No. CXCIII.
Descartes, the wonderful De,soartc,-, is the :11, All
whose genius has in thy, current number of the
Edinburgh been selected for examination by one of
the reviewers. It is well remarked of him at the
outset of this very masterly dissertation, that although
at various times of his life " playing many parts,"
he never appeared before the world really in any
other character than that of a philosopher. His ad-
ditioi s to the sum of human knowledge, and his ad-
mirable method in its arrangement, are alike spoken
of in terms of unqualified and deservedly enthusiastic
admiration. But the chief glory of his labours is well
declered to be " the vast influence he exerted in the
origination and development of modern philosophy."
Due notice is of course taken of the glimpse of
his career obtained through the medium of
his " Letters," his " Method," and his " Me-
ditations" —as the writer calls them, " those
chlrming fragments of nientql autobiography." Their
value is somewhat remarkable as tending naturally to
elucidate some of the more recondite myst,_ries of
psyc h0!0,7,- The piety of the grea,, philosopher in
•
his youth was somewhat remarlrible, and naturally
enough cannot be overlookf.d by his more conscienti-
ous biographer. It is mentioned of him that. he once
vowed a pilgrimage to the shrine of the Virgin at
Loretto if she would but graciously smile upon his
enterprise. Such was the illustrious Descartes when
he commenced his glorious toils as a philosopher.
Cog ito, ergo sum—was the thesis of one of his argu-
men'e. "It is Descartes', roe o-rw," says the re-
viewer, " the starting point of his philosophy." Tra-
velling ever the whole of the elaborate history of a
man second only to the great Lord Verulam as a
chieftain among modern philosophers, we come in
due course to the famous doctrine (opposed
t) the hypothesis of Locke) of innate ideas, as main-
tained by Descartes. After this noble paper illustra-
tive of the progressive advances made in the develop.
meat of knowledge, we come to a vigorous polemical
onslaught upon Henry Phillpotts, the Lord Bishop of
Exeter. Had any one prophesied, a score of years
back, says the critic, " that we should live to see a
Bishop of Exeter solemnly and deliberately excom-
municate an Archbishop of Canterbury, we should
certainly have thought the prophet a candidate, for
Bedlam." " Yet," continues the Edinburgh—
" This, amongst other restorations of Al,dimvalism,
we have lived to see, In this culminating year of the
nineteenth century, not a madman's dream, but a living
fact; as real and palpable as the Submarine Telegraph,
the Britannia Bridge, or the Crystal Palace. The same
month which beheld the opening of the Great Exhib

tion, saw also the triennial visitation of Bishop Phil-
potts, and witnessed the astonishment of his assembled
clergy, when he delivered to them, ex cathedra,the awful
tidings that he had ' renounced communion' with his
metropolitan?'

Thereupon the reviewer commences his grand attack
upon the Bishop. Quoting one of the well-remem-
bered letters addressed by the latter to the Archbishop,
the Edinburgh exclaims—
. . . .

"0, Spirii of Moliare! Surely the happiest strokes
of the Tartuffe are surpassed by this devout ejaculation!
It can only be equalled by the felicitous termination of
the letter to the Archbishop, on which Mr. Goode so
humorously enlarges ; where a long string of insults
ushers in the signature of ' your Grace's affectionate
friend for nearly thirty years, and your now afflicted
servant, H. Exeter.' Yes! The Tartuffe of nature
exceeds the Tartuffe of art; reality is more comic than
fiction."

An interesting summary of the changes effected of
late in the laws of the land by the innovations
of both Lords and Commons in Parliament assem-

bled, is then given under the title of "Recent Pro-
gress in Legislation." Following this article comes
a highly intelligent and gracefully written little trea-
tise upon " Church Music," is the course of which
we watch, among other things, the decay of English
music under the Stuarts. To the next contribution

we have already referred in our leading columns, as
to a paper comprising "A Few Words on International
Copyright." Besides the foregoing, we may also
mention, as forming the remaining portions of the
Edinburgh for January, an elaborate criticism on
" Palgrave's Normandy and England," an important
account of the " Ordnance Survey of Scotland," and
the argument upon " The Expected Reform Bill,"
to which, as in the instance already mentioned, we
have elsewhere directed the serious attention of the
community. Among these diversified contributions,
the first and third appear to us the most entitled to
admiration, the other six being, however, each of
them in their peculiar way, highly meritorious.