Weekly national intelligencer., 1851-11-08


Won Orelli. Aarau, Germany.
DIR. HITCHCOCK states, in his " Religion of Ge-
ology," work not long since noticed in our
columns, that the doctrines of materialism and of
pantheism, in its chameleon forms, are more widely
embraced at the present day than almost any other
religious error AS Spinoza is regarded, if not the
author, at least the great expounder Of the material
istc andpantheistic system, we have thoughit might
not prove unnieresng or Improbable to advert, in
an exposition as brief possible, to the salient
points OF that body of metaphysics contained in the
writings of the great Dutch philosopher, and which,
however unsound, must nevertheless be regarded
as one of the most stupendous efforts of the human
intellect. The works of Spinoza, we are surprised
to find, have never been translated into our Ian
guage from the Latin, in which they were origi-
nally composed, that the student is compelled to
resort for knowledge of his system either to the
grabbed and of oftheseveneenth century,
or to some reliable translation of his productions.
Such translation is that which has been furnished
US by the capable hand Of M. Emile Sasset, and
More does himno more thanjusc when he entities
the " French edition by far the most convenient
for general reference, both from the perspicuty
well as the fidelity of the translation. We shall
therefore avail ourselves of all the information we
can derive from his volumes, in conjunction with the
work of Orelli--a German scholar, and most en-
thusiastic admirer Of the Sage Of Holland In
deed, Orelli's admiration Of Spinoza amounts al
most TO alteration and, should translate for our
readers few Of his rhapsodicsl apostrophes to
the "supernal genius who first taught man to bask
in the light Of original being" we are sure they
would convict him of introducing " Grand Lama
ism" in philosophy, and of out-doing Boswell in
biographical adulasion.
! The working and destiny of Spinozism have
been somewhat anomalous. That system of
metaphysics and morals which, on its first promul-
CATION, was received only with universal reproba-
ton, and finally fell into utter disesteem and desue-
tude, should eventually be resusci,ated and made
the substratum Of all the PHILOSOPHERS which, du-
ring the last three quarters of century, have d.
vided and distracted the schools of Germany, is
certainly phenomenon without parallel in the
history of metaphysical literature No fact in this
department Of letters has been more frequently
remarked than the mortality which seems to inhere
in all its productions; SO that elaborate treatises
once quoted as authorities, are now no longer re-
membered except as the tentative efforts, it may be
Of mighty but 'misdirected intellects; and reputa-
tions once deemed colossal have been found to re-
sembe the image which Nebuchadnezzar saw in
vision of the night, standing on feet Of iron mixed
with mry clay. The field of metaphysical science
is strewed with the wrecks of exploded systems,
until the popularity of the metaphysician has be-
come precarous and short-lived as that of would
be statesmen in Republican France. In contem-
plating the hapless destiny and thwartcd aim Of
these mental philosophers, we are always irresist-
ably reminded of certain exercises ascribed in an
cient song 10 divers of the dweers in Tartarus-of
Ixion revolving on the internal wheel of perpetual
motion of the DanaTdes vainly attempting to fill
their perforated casks with water; of Ssyphus roll
ing up the "high hill the huge round stone," only
to see it remorselessly bound away, as old Homer
says, to the bottom. Let not the reader smile at
the concelt, for we have Mlton's authority in thus
associa,ing the metaphysical speculations Of men
that " reason high" with the advertisements of the
lower sphere.
There are doubtless many and evidsn. reasons
to be assigned for this instability which affects alike
the popular estimation of successive theories in
mental science, and the fame of their authors :
among these may be mentioned the intrinsic diff
Guilty of the subject since it exacts that the mind
shall examine its own essence, which is much the
same as if we demanded of the eye to see its own
organism and then, there is a fugacity in all
mental phenomena which mocks the grasp when
we attempt to seize them, and delicacy and in
substantially which perish at our touch when we
attempt TO analyze them, as the mysterious princ-
pie Of life in the physical frame fades away beneath
the knife and the scalpel. The Greek, with the
subtle logic peculiar to his language gave concrete
expression to this abstract truth, by employing the
same word to denote the butterfly and the soul.
And, further, since human language is cast in the
mould of the senses, there must ever subsist in
superabe incongruity between its sensuous forms
and the impapable conceptions of the pure reason,
thereby introducing unavoidable elements of doubt
and obscurity in the solution of all psychological
problems. The terminology Of the Kantian philo-
sophy, for instance is al once hybrid, pedantic,
and transcendental, that we can never free our
minds from the conviction that its terms are intend
ed to be used merely counters in puzzle; nor
is this vice which attaches to the school of Kant
alone. Terms of every day application and words
Of familiar import, may be subjected to series of
formal and logical processes, until they begin to
assume vague significance, which leaves the
mind to be imposed upon with the mere semblance
of ratocination abstract terms may be thus tortured
into propositions that shall be as unintegible and
as impossible too as are those cases in the higher
mathematics where our symbols actually break
down, and cease any longer to express appreciable
quantities. The philosophy Of Hegel, which COM
mences with logic, proceeds with logic, and ends
with logic, is not exempt from this imputation; for
who can ponder the grand primal truth which he
teaches, Das Sein ist Nichfs-Being is nothing
and not conclude that the proposition is about as
Ineligible the square root of minus five, or as
a, y, and z, in an algebrac equation composed en-
tirely of unknown quantities No wonder that,
with psychological system thus developed from
! its own nomenclature, he told the Baron de
Reifenberg. upon the request Of that nobleman to
favor him with brief exposition of his doctrine in
French, Monsieur, celia ne s'explique pas en-
ErancaSs ~ And here of drracc coro ,ror,ovt