New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1847-01-25
CHARACTERIZATION.
ExTRAcTs FIoa LETTER Of Scicpf,sc s,Hilez1A ~
LONDON % is fisaa IN his COUNTRY.
fCommun Gated for The Tribune

COmmun Gated Tor Inc lrioune
- Pray You DO not be disturbed by the
fac, that you are MT up in the Sciences Their Et-
lie fiddler faddling knowledges cannot By possibility
be necessary TO any mind which finds it difficult,
either from circumstances or disposition to sssimi
late them. Excepting to lecturers, the Sciences
exist almost in books alone. Paper itself is the
only memory strong enough to hold them You
alude 20 my knowledge Of Anatomy. Heaven
save the mark Why. at present have no more
in nv head on that subject than n butcher. who
sees the great groups Of organs ard thinks vul-
carly Of them have learned some little Of their
wheels and snrinys AZ different times, but Il IS all
f,-rotten now And my only lien on i IS, that |
know the books that contain II, now that contain
il no longer This IS the naked truth and probably
would apply 70 considerable extent 70 almost All
minds let books contain the form oil know ledge
but our minds should Rave ats power and SPIN or
thew should have only its great humanItary cores
ponden,s which almost every one can and does &C
auire However if you wish 70 be scientific. the
facts Of the social science may comprise tor you al
other facts. They the results OF all and speak
/ 10 the whole man az once. Every body can under
stand them Look back from them, and you will
find personality as on cud reigning IN the whole
universe In this way you get 50 20 say, intro
duced POLITELY speakinsl 20 the creation. But
! while il sleeps IN matter and misunderstanding
| and you hardly know whether { IS mere statue
! or man how or with what confidence can you so
mnch as desire its acquaintance. The only wish |
have in the sciences is to see how the stones, and
trees and so forth are all good gentlemen IN their
| degrees When this IS seen, you have no more
need to account for them than you have for the ex-
| istence Of your OWE brother. What they do IS
their use, and this is their end and justihcation-
All things are their own philosophy, only not in
! talk but In action.
If might be allowed an opinion, think your
mind at present is in ai excellent track. The doc
trine of the Divine Humanity IS clearly the highest
doctrine OF Heaven. The gloriiication OF that Hu.
manity is by analogy the rule OF all progress, OF all
movement toward goodness. There is not single
sphere Of knowledge but is hollow and unsubstan.
tal if the recognition OF that aoctnv IL iot in it
n reconciles the idealist 10 Nature, and the ma.
| ,orisliS, 70 COP In word, 1t gives poor IIu
manitv \ new and everlasting root IN fresh cove
nant and IS. emphaticaly, Religion. Ii Is doc
| time which hone M dear friend. will spend and
b. s,ont for The commnest knowledge and the
rnerest obesance 70 duty. best illustrate IT. He
| who makes no excursion into the Sciences, using
tho term in its modern limited sense. may find IN
his own home here a deeper insight into creation
and windows more pelludd and truly crystalline
than ali the vaeueuess q self sought things can
otherwise afford him. In word II you be so
minded there is need TO study anything less
than Humanity for the Confirmation OF the DIVINE
Humanity; least Of all 10 Cypress the memory
|
every day reduced by the sdroH'
Ends are the means 20 illustrate means Loves
are what causes work for and what ends repre-
| sent Whatever IS not manifested IN the END, can
hardly be gathered from the means at least II the
means be rudely entreated in the search Inc
means must themselves be regarded as ends be
fore they can afford light. but if they are broken
no. they are DESTROYED as ends. ] mention this
because of a conversation | had with one OF our
first transccndentalists the other day. You Know
Id. famous IS an expounder Of Coleridge, and
perhaps also of Kant Web IN the course OF his
course he put it forth as n great axiom mat an
knowledge terminates in ignorance. objected,
that " ali knowledge should terminate in action
that the end of knowing was clearly dong, and
that thing might fairly be said to terminate 40 rs
epd The contrary idea is surely running the mind
off its legs in infinite space. To this he assented
But only see the consequence OF taxing Man 70
pieces without having power 10 put hum together
sgain H.d separated the intellectual part
from the Love ana forgetting to put on the latter
again as the head and end, he ran the neck rght
up to the sky, and found sublimity IN not Know
ing how far it had to go before II got 10 the ihhhte
Ii is the old query over again; " how many COWS
tails would reach to the Moon? 10 which com
mon sense very opportunity brings an end, by say
ing, One. II il were long enough Now must
tell Won another anecdOte OF my dear old ii. w
we're talking of space in the two worlds, and he
said there might be space IN the spiritual world
only il must be pure space. asked might u nave
objects in it He rejoined, " Yes but they must
be pure objects not phenomena they must be
frei always there" " Is that, then SAID j,
:. YOUR idea Of a spiritual world in which one thing
40 packs another that all motion Is impossible IL
is M idea of glue pot He saw he was IN NIX
and asked him whether he did not raiher tnihh
that the velocity with which phenomena al LABOR
ing with the same end charged with the same
idea passed under the senses must be TOY radiol
greater there than here and that the relative deptn
and observation-disclosures of the sphere would De
measured by that velocity well, these TWO
little stories only show what brittle, bony' un'
moving state our brains are IN al present IN 'he
first place they move IN straight lines "he'e lney
ought 10 move In curves and refreshing meadows
and in the second they conhne themselves to one
degree. where, on the other hand, Nature IS ever
ascending and descending through scale OF de
grees and giving life ON this condition to the lower
from the higher.
A word concerning the doctrine OF Exceptions
OF which YOU speak. Ny understanding OF 1t Is
very limited. aad OF the most ordinary kind In
fact apart from the evident common sense truth oi
IL rests unon few vulgar illustrations. The I'M
verse consists Of Series, and these Series are all
combined into one, which is the Universe Now
in order to combine them, there mus be pro
cesson from one % another; and as the procession
IS midway between any two IN place so 1t IS mid
way in fancuon and structure; for places exist Tor
ends and contain means for distinctly working them
out so that place, Junction. structure, ation
are all but one thing in reality N the divine Wenra
of the world. viz distinct pieces OF causstion But
these midways transitions are exceptions M some
respects 10 both the Series they connect They are
hall ike one thing and hall ike another and being
themselves wholes they are indiyidualities, not
lwithstanding, or in a word. exceptions. The bat
the hying.fsb &c. are familiar sign-posts on thus
road Moreover. there is perhaps no being who
Is not an exception precisely in that wherein ms
own individual use lies. This is al know about
!, Fourier II is true has given the proportions OF
the exceptional spheres which he sets down at one
eighth Of the whole, and dare say he had many
bases for his calculus But whether he means that
is always the ratio, that it IS ratio proceeding
according 10 the roots. powers, &c OF the num-
Der G is more than, with my exceedingly snsh'
knowledge Of his views, l can pretend to deter
mine. = =. " Y.
| n1snerni Nntifea.