Weekly national intelligencer., 1851-10-11


metaphysicans as DIR. Samuel Clarke and those Of
his ilk. But are we not in danger of too much un-
dervaluing those precise and exact methods of ar.
gumentation which these men pursued! As mere
specmens-formaaiS, if you please-of syllogistic
reasoning have the logical processes Of the school
men themselves ever been surpassed; and, though
may not study them for the truth of their premi-
ses or the business of their conclusions NAV we no,
safely initiate their ratiocna.ive methods! In this
study, says Mephistopheles TO the Student in
Goethe's /" Faust" the mind is well broken in
laced up in Spanish boots, that it creeps crcum-
specify along the path of thought, and runs no risk
Of fickering, igns fatuus-ke, in all directions
Now, though Goethe wished to mock a. logic, by
putting tins sentence in the mouth of the leering de-
mon, yet we are Of opinion that modern mind needs
to be laced up, if not in a"Spansh boot" at least
in more stringent harness than that by which its
course along T" the path of thought is at present
guided A little more circumspection, even though
it may compel us occasionally to creep, will only
the better preserve from laundering in the bogs
and quicksands which beset those precipita.e truth
seekers who Jump to their conclusions And, un-
less we greatly mistake, the scientific men of the
present day will ere long be compelled TO renstall
the study of logic for the sake of that accuracy of
thinking which it inculcates and engenders. The
very nomenclature Of physical science needs at this
moment to be reconstructed on logical basis, and
by SO doing much will already have been done to-
wards expelling from the region of its fundamental
principles certain which have secured lodg-
ment there only from the looseness and vagueness
with which these fundamental principles are defn-
ed. Hence we every day hear such phrases as
+" the discovery of cause" g the theory Of causa-
ton," and the "discovery of law used by differ
ent natural philosophers with different sgnifca-
ton, and yet are all the while banded about among
them as so many convertible terms. Though it
may be true that # -
- All a rhetoricans rules
Bot teach him how to name his tools,
yet this knowledge is therein important, for the
very that it is likely to be disregarded, viz
because it is elementary--as important to the phi
osopher as it is for the carpenter to know the differ
ence between his adj and chisel, or axe and saw
We have often pictured to ourselves the ludicrous
scene that was exhibited on plain in the land of
Shinar about 3,s4l years ago. according to the ge-
nerally received chronology At that time certain
ambitious projectors took it into their heads TO erect
agreat tower-a Lighthouse in the skies," we sup
pose it might have been called--that was to be as
high Jacobs ladder. During the progress Of the
work, however, there seems to have arisen strange
confusion Of speech, so that wher the shout
ed out for more mort the holman brought him
instead turn of bricks the carpenter cried for his
level, and straightway received plumb line; the
plasterer asked for lath, and they brought him
beams big enough for rafters thai what with their
perplexty, Indignation and folly they fell to each
others ears, pickering, quarreng, and fighting in
universal /" hubbub Wild" and all without under
standing word of one another. Wherefore is
the name of it called Babel; becausethe LORD did
there confound the language Of all the EARTH" The
confusion still exists, not only in all the earth,"
but in every walk of science and fieldof research,
introducing Babe-like jargon, so tha; men do not
I" understand one anothers Speech"
Campbell, in his " Philosophy of Rhstoric'' has
most instructive chapter on the confusion ofideas
resulting from the use Of "general terms" This
may be seen in the scientific language OF such wri-
tiers as confound the laWs of phenomena with the
causes of phenomena and however patent it may
be deemed the fallacy of their augmentation must
necessarily be, yet it is just such fallaces that are
imposed upon the credulity of many unthnking
readers. Moreover, in an age like the present,
when men are so much eDgrossed in the study Of Sc
cond causes, there seems to be tendency ifnot to
discard, at least to disregard the Great First Cause
of all things. His active and direct agency is re-
moved as far as possible from any participation in
the present constitution of Nature. On this point
we think il would be well for scientific men to pom
der the sentiments of the great father of them ALL
FRANCIS BAcoN-a man not likely to say aught in
disparagement of his favorite study. "When the
second causes" says he, which are next unto the
senses, do offer themselves to the mind of man. if
it dwell and stay there, it may induce some OBJ
ivion of the highest cause but when man pas
seth on further, and seeth the dependence ofcauses
and the works of Providence, then, according to
the allegory of the poets, he will easily believe
that the highest link of Natures chain must needs
be tied to the foot of Jupters chair" Who does
not see in this single sentence at once the large"
and the f" fine" mind of the great English philo-
sopher!
Mr.. MILLER, in his " Footprints of the Creator"
has done much towards counteracting this preva-
lent tendency of modern science, and the same spi-
rt pervades also his other geological writings. The
theory, or rather wild hypothesis, of De Maillet and
Lamarck, which was lately revived by bold geo.
logical speculatist, was first successfully confuted
by his researches, and has since been regarded as
buried lower than any geological digger will be
likely to penetrate, in order to honor It with
unless it be deemed that this has
already been done by recent anonymous publica-
ton of British author of considerable ingenuity
and subtlety, who has discovered that all matter
possesses selfdynamic power-an inherent spi-
rit, from which is evolved the spirit of vitality in
vegetables, and of motion in the animals nourished
by them" In word, this author declares, with
the German freethinker, Feuerback, that !" man is
what he eats - from which as thesis the German
proceeds to trace, very fuenty and naturally, the
corruption Of morals in Ireland to the potato rot.
II, however, the nature and constitution OF animal
life is decided by and ultimately derived from We
geable vitality, as the Briton supposes what an in