Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1851-11-15

The system 10 pieces In lis Details II - only the
better to disguise his obligations to his master for
there are iDgrates in philosophy well in real
life. Hegel, though like Schelling somewha. 10th
!. jurare in Uerba magisfri," nevertheless awards
him the highest need of philosophic praise.
"SPinoza," says he, (" is the principal figure in
modern philosophy; il is either Spinozism, or no.
thing" He who begins to philosophize," he
adds, " must first become Spinozist. His soul
must battle itself in that ethereal medium of the
single substance in which lies hidden all rtalty.'
I" There is no system Of morals more pureO or sub
lime than Spinozas,' in the opinion of this same
philosopher--an opinion not at all to be wondered
at, when we remember the kindred fatalism which
informs alike Hegel's philosophy Of history and
Spinoza's moral science. But the development of
Spinoza's teachings has not ended with Heael, and
is still going on in the rival schools Of H1gelan-
ism-,he Hegelians the right hand and on the
left, as they caeied TO follow their course,
however, in all the minute and diversified r$4nifca-
tons of the various PHILOSOPHERS which at present
distract the minds of German students, would lead
us into labyrinth, where we should " find 10 end,
in wandering mazes lost
In nation where the poets are all philosophers;
if the philosophers are not all poets, it suld be
strange if they were not found TO par.akep the
prevalent enthusiasm for Spinoza. jacob i'm his
g Letters on Spinoza'' first revealed to Germany
admirer of Spinoza. At first all Germiny was
startled by the announcement, and many tere the
indignant denals of the charge on the part If friends
less aUances; Claudius, Herder, and Heydenreich
especially signalized themselves by their zeal in
/ this memorable literary controversy. Goethe too
loved to descant when in his most genial moods,
on 'sthe peaceful working" which Spinoza's ne
cessiterianism produced in his mind and in one Of
his letters speaks of the refuge and soace that he
I II Al.
Can we not said Herder, get Goethe to read some
other author than Spinoza? For to such degree
had his admiration Of the Tantheist proceeded that
it amounted almost to an ilfatnation; did we say
almost? Let us rather say quite. When Goethe,
nthe pathetic plant of disappointed heart, mourn
Ell that he could not exercise the simple faith, or
enjoy the fervent pety of his friend Jung Shilling,
4 he gave melancholy proof that his :" old asylum
could no longer afford him shelter or consolation.
The admiration ofSpinoza which the poet Novalis
also professed is too well known TO need remark.
TIE influence which the sane philosopher has
exer'ed on the theology Of Germany is no less ap-
parent than in the history Of is philosophical de-
velopments but TO do justice to this branch OF
our subject would demand treatise by itself, we
must sum up the whole matter ly quoting the re-
mark Of Scheiermacher, that SPnoza is not more
the author of modern philosophy than he is of ra-
tionalistic biblical criticism his ethics being the
vade-mecum of the former, ant his Tractatus
neutrality-suspicious. of the latter. AS specimen
OF sublime nonsense, we cannot Orbear to tran
scribe the following passage from Dr.. Schleierma-
cher. "Offer with me- he exclains, g a tress oil
hair to the names of holy and traduced Spinoza
9 The sublime spirit Of the world nter-penetrated
his soul; the Infinite was his beginning and his
8 end, the Universal his sole and eternal love lv-
8 ing in holy innocence and in profound humility,
he looked into the eternal world is in mirror
and saw that he too was for the world mirror
worthy of love; he was full of religion, and full
of the holy ghost; and thus he appears to us soil
tary and unrivalled, master in hisart but raised
far above the vulgar, without disciples, and with
: out right of commonalty. Burgerschaft." He
is thus, it seems, the Melchisedec OF Rationalism.
In France, Spinoza has not played SO important
a role as in Germany, yet is he not without adj
mirers and apologists, though the mercurial Gauls
employ tone much more subdued than the phleg-
matte Teutons. Cousin, Jouffroy, Jules Simon,
and Armand Santes are perhaps the best expositors
of Spinozism among the French. The latter espe-
cally has published an elaborate work respecting
the controlling influence which SPnozism has ex-
erted on modern philosophy. Among our own coun-
trymen, we are inclined TO believe Spinoza has
shared the fate of the " admirable Chillingworth"
and the "judicous Hooker"-to be talked of by
every body and read by none and as long as such
classics in our own tongue are suffered to lie in
neglect, Spnoza may well afford to rest on the
same shelf by their side.
/ Here, then, we must pause in our statement of
the strange destiny which has befallen Spnoza and
philosophical systems for the records of literature,
we repeat, may be searched in vain to find another
instance of equal condemnation and Of equal praise
bestowed upon the same productions. He whom
Bayle execrated as a systematic atheist is re-
garded by Schleermacher as filled with religion and
the Holy Ghost; he whose system, according to
Malebranche was "frightful chimera," is lauded
by Lichtenberg as having conceived the most sub
lime thought that ever entered the head of man =
he whose writings were once published under false
titles in order 10 evade the censorship of the press,
has found multitude of readers in our day, as
eager as Hegel and his friend H6derlin, when un-
der-graduates in the Stiff, or theological seminary
OF Tubingen, they pored with rapture over his
pages and those Of Plato the divine.
In conclusion, if we were asked to specify the
radical error, the proton pseudos, Of Spnoza's
philosophy, we would be more wise perhaps in
evading the question, as did Malebranche when a
similar query was propounded by his youthful
friend Marian; for as M. Saisset Justly observes,
the paralogism of Spinoza's reasoning is not to be
found in this place in that, but everywhere, and
he who enters its labyrinthine windings without a
clue to guide his steps, may find himself bewilder-
ed in its mazes, like the poor Dutchman, John de
Bredenburg, who, being smitten with philosoph-
cal tic, took to the study of Spinozsm in order to
refute it, when TO- at the termination of his ucubra-
tons, he found he had become Spinozst in des-
i L