New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1850-12-13

seriousness and with its master key Gnlooks the
riddles Of the individual soa, OF history and reve-
lation Nature and spirit Eye but passing nodes,
in which the laws of being are untoIded. Chris-
tianity is the transient expression Of that Infinite
truth and goodness which ever incarnate them
selves in newer forms a sparkling ripple on the
bosom of an ocean streaming lr3n eternity mo
time: It's mysteries are IDEAS of the universal
reason is Goldman a type OF the divine en-
shrined in humanity, and the redemption II pro
claims onlv the tOredawnI9S OF that teFeI0pIneaG
going forward in The seiiconsc.oas soul and n
focietv toward It's union with the pe-.ect.
He thus describes the effects Of false Idealism
on Literature, In justice to the author, we quote
hisremarks, which Advantageous and "eex-
pressed, are marked with the exaggerations, aud
in some instances, with the perversion which he
finds in the views OF which he complains:
Literature, which should be N harmony with
the hottest instincts Of the human spirit whose
beauty is the consQmmate flower sPringin5
from the root OF truth, and needing Tor its iaiI de-
velopment the soil OF faith, the warm air OF deyo
ton: literature which in Homer and S0ph9-
cles euc;rcled with an mmorta. splendor the ny
thology OF Greece, in Dante breathed amid t1e
forms OF dead superstition the spirit OF mystic
religion. as it is now heard IN the many voiced
utterance Of the time. p0urs forth the words OF
doubt and unbelief That noblest drama OF the
noblest modern genius seems 10 ne TO embody
most wildly these strange autaG0nlsns; IL the
Faust. the asprer after unknown knowledge
lofty alike in his true yearaags, ais unchecked
daring, his weary disappointment, and N the
Mephistopheles, the demon OF cold phIosopnic
indifferentism, are the contrasted yet closely
blended lineanents. revealing a mind which amid
It's cravings after truth has found only inelan.
cholv scepticism. The serene repose that hangs
as an atmosphere about the page o! cider Itera-
tu7e the devout imagination that kneit at the
altar and decked 1t with votlye offerings, the iaith
that leved to dwell among the conceptions which
Christianity inspires, and 70 ORA" from these us
deepest life, are gone. The poet walks no longer
amid the COuseCrated places, where the voice OF
worship ascends to the Incarnate God Man, but
with the DREAMY soul OF the Oriental among the
scenes of nature pours forth his hymn TO the Spirit
of Intellectual Beauty Ofelse, instead OF this
idealism OF unbeet, we have an ldealism OF Sc
persttion, religion OF Christian fancy whose
beauty is only the absence OF living truth, strlv-
ing in tie desolateness OF faith to rebuild the
shrine out of It's shattered fragments. Aesthetic
science, too, has severed Itself from oehet. An
ideal Pantheism, the offspring OF the ptllosophc
Imagination divorced from the moral conscious
ness, allies itself to art and destroys IT'S real
harmony with the mysterious heart OF Christianity
The devotee OF today enters through the gate
beautiful OF the temple, not TO bow Ia reverence,
but to upft the veil, hiding the Holy OF Holes,
and cry, I" there is no God but nature aud the
conscious soul Of man But equally az IN feli-
gon DO we behold the error IN its gchcrh' m
fuences With the mechanism OF inc Phhi hHa
the age flung off all coverings. and ~nlha nbrond
in an ideal Adamitism. The mont exalted ooheeP'
fions of human nature are b6ndod with the lnoHt
morbid sentiments with nn utter dIHreEnfd oi tito
rsver,nt in tincts this denrrsl nsaoenlona OF the
heart with falsely chilled Plntonin loyp. drawn
far more from the " NonYelle lielnino and tho
..yVerter" thnn from tho pnees ol lilo Crock
al Il al
the f0rRollunoas al iail nnGlel corruption with
ii h0nnicd leeipn. uhiul, haa nu rot in law with
II aOual enthusiasm. Uhinh. instead nl hplluwinE
those institutions essential td purity nnnoa only
nteallass unhplipl IN avety vice toaraint al house
hold Lille ~ public ,tiai All theae tho fruits
Of lnao tletI 81 man drawn from perverted
idealiRm, W hetpvet turn to the pnEo of mod
en- literature. we perceive them in their strange
.rst-sion. That cold intellectual ndcrcntism
II 4 -srvadinG element in Goethe. That ardent
sl.ziarity, without settled Christian ideas OF scc
.;-y r II religion but dwelling only in dim visions
ii 1'ss iature, is seen in Schiller Chateaubriand
mi >chlegel represent the idealism of tradition
~ : zst. We speak OF these as the archetypa
nus of the time. Nor need we dwell on the
many names in drama, lyric, romance review,
who give us every varied phase OF the present
from the sentimental mysticism OF Lamartlne and
the authoress of Consuelo,' embodymG all the
aspirations with all the errors OF modern genlas
to those who in the guise OF spiritual feeling teach
n blasphemy as blank as that OF an atheistc age'a
]ibertiniam as undisgused as II 1t WallOWed IN
" Epcurus sty" And when we turn to the literd-
ture ofEngland noble though 1t be as the revlving
of its mind and heart, we cannot but lind wanting
that soldty Of thought, that truthtulness OF feel
ing so characteristic of the great men OF the
seventeenth century, and only possible to an age
OF sober faith. Perhaps | could single no truer
Representative man than Mr.. Carlyle mind
gushing with the most lifeke ASPIRATIONS who
has done more than almost any to awaken with
his eloquent voice high aim among scholars yet
from whose writings rise, mingled with those bet
ter elements, the widest doubt, the most sneering
cynicism, the most shadoWy mysticism; an Unsnt-
stied and unsatisfying genius, who, when the first
glow of admiration is over leaves us floating Oh
the void and iormless abyss Of hts opinions, In
him is imaged modern literature. l. is that of Tn
age, seeking, but not yet finding it's repose And
as we pass from the more general sphere OF let
tiers to that of social action we find the same per-
version A false idealism is the source of our
worst errors. II inCulcates not an obedience,
based on deep moral principle, but the supre
macy of the individual conscience above all law
1t declares the periectiblity Of man, but without
recognition OF existing evils, or of the need Of a
higher wisdom than that OF nature for his purifying
Modern Socialism in its truth and its falsehood is
the very child of the time and above all othat land
which has SCENTS fullest development where as is
told by an old naturalist OF the yew tree the green
mold, deposited in its decay is the soil of new,
luXuriant growth. Modern Socialism has reared
its hopes not on Christianity as the inner law of
aredeemed humanity, but on the abstract notions
which ideaism gives Of the incarnation Of God in
the race, and kingdom of earthly Perfection
And thus, instead OF that wisdom, which, aiming
at the happiness OF man, yet works in unison with
the methods OF religion planted at the heart its
result can be only gorgeous vision, incapable of
reality and ending in the destruction without re-
construction Of the solid fabric Of present order.
Otherevil tendencies arising out of false de-
alism are portrayed with glowing eloquence,
but on the whole he regards the signs ofthe heav
ems as favorable to the horoscope of American
philosophy.
To accomplish this will be, indeed, no speedy
work. The conquests OF science are not fruits Of