New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1844-03-22
'o.s. TO Professor Bronson.

| LeGrned Slr: The scientific and philosophical
puoilc are doubtless IN state Of intense excitement
III regard 10 the discussion which is expected 10 take
| place between Us. After the anxiety | have exhi-
olted Tor peace, onyou, sir must rest the respoisi-
oillty and the odlum which must be increased BY
Two learned and scientific gentlemen engaged in the
unoecon!ing attitude OF Newspaper combatants.-
| on, sir. haVn II IN Your power 10 withdraw your
challenge, and thereby the literary and philoso-
! ph!cal community from this painful spectacle ana
ourselves from ell those disagreeabe circums tances
| WhIch attend our present position. Buff YOU are
determined TO perseyere, let me remind YOU, learned
SIR mat you are the assailant in this matter. Have
you not, under the banners Of YOUR new "{1irersol
Philosophy fiercely attacked al that has hereto
fore borne the name? Have YOU not assaiIed Pytha-
goras and Aloschru us the Tribunes bows will
| print it, and Anaxagoras, and Plotinus and lam
bilchus, and AppoIonius of Tyaria and AIbertus
Magnns, and Bacon, and Tycho Brache-to say no
hing of Tie theologians, whom you have excoriaed
| and held up naked and shivering to the scorn ard
| contempt Of this enlightened age2 Are you not also.
beyond all question, the challenger Have YOU no;
ttrown dorm the gauntlet and have MOI therefore
a night to cali upon you 10 define your position be
fore can even determine whether can or ought 10
take tup?
Let there be, therefore, beseech you, no longer
any shrinking from the proposition ola true issue in
this matter. Let know for what we are 10 con-
tend " he boundiesS continent OF philosophy lies
All before you, How can determine Wnen and
where to meet you, or whether can meet you at ALL
unless you select some department wthnthe bounds
OF OntoLoSy2 Choose then your field, whether il be
Logic, or Pedagogic, or Pneumatology, or Metaphy-
sicsor Hydrosatcs This last department, confess,
is the one in which shall find myself most at home
and here, my dear sir, it is absolutely necessary
that some of your own views should be set forth as
prelimnares as for example, whether you hold
TO plenum or a r0cuum, or both whether you ac-
cept the ancient doctrine of occult qualities, and
maintain that the water rises in the pump by virtue
of an occult erhnuSting sucking quality OF that
instrument, or whether the phenomenon proceeds
from power in the EXTERIOR operating through the
medium of correspondence or by tux and refux
upon the interior. Besides it is very important that
should know before hand, the laws, the grounds
and the modes of reasoning you intend to adopt in
the discussion, and with which you are to be met.
Do you mean to abide by, to contradict Arisote's
famous dictua that 4" q universal contains whatever
is included in it" Do you intend to proceed logic
ally or dogmatcally, or by correspondence VIII
you adhere to the predicables TO the categores
Do you mean absolutely deny 20 that there be
any more than three degrees in each universal or
10 assert that those degrees discrete and not con-
tmuOus? ?" In fine, do you mean to defer to the school
men, or wholly reject their Authority? 1t is TO be
hoped, my dear sir, that YOU will longer evade
joining issue on of the points presented, or that
in some way at least you will bring these matters
10 a bearing to furnish grounds for decsion
whether this discussion go ahead shall be dis
continued before ii starts. Yours, &c. .. ).