Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1852-12-04
NATIONAL MTELLIGENCER.
NOTES ON NEW BOOKS.

Course OF the History Of Modern Philosophy BY VIC
COUSIN Translated from the French by O W
WIoHT. 2yols, New York Appleton Co. 1852.
Intellectual philosophy is dead letter to tw,
classes Of persons those who ignore it as science
and those who eschew it as study. The former
either from natural stolidity or from the infu
erce Of external circumstances are satisfied to b,
merely sentient and percipient beings; not caring
to account to themselves for the manner in which
their mental operations are conducted, they never
interrogate their consciousness to the origin, ORDER
or actuality of their impressions !; thought goes
forth indeed from the mind by virtue of its gene
tic power but returns to investigate the pro-
cess Of its genesis nor the nature Of its essence
To argue the claims Of philosophy before such per
sons is obviously but to initiate the forbidden folly
of casting pearls before swine, and would certainly
prove as fruitess as dsquisition aesthetics de-
livered in the presence of sedate and venerable
company of oysters The latter class, or those who
on principle discard the study of metaphysics, must
be supposed to have given at least some attention
to the whole subject for to pronounce that mere
logomachy which assumes to be legitimate science,
without giving its pretensons careful candid, and
thorough examination, is in the last degree capri
cious and absurd If one has not critically investi
gated the science in all its departments how does
he know but that after all there may be such evi-
dences Of its truth and commences contained in
some unexplored recess as would suffice to force
conviction even upon his recusant understanding,
Just as a profound thinker of England (and of
Greece, we may add, before hm*) has declared that
the atheist cannot, without extreme temerty and
presumption, assert that there is no God for who
can tell but that in some part of the vast universe
there may be such proofs and manifestations Of the
Deity as he can neither gainsay nor resist Unless
he be omniscient-that is, a God in knowledge-he
has no authority for the negative creed which he SO
positively asserts; it would require God to know
there is no God-so paradoxical is atheism. In
like manner no man has light to inveigh against
metaphysical systems unless he has thoroughly
mastered and deliberately weighed them all, nor
even then, for his mouth should be stopped by the
consideration that his philosophical skepticism is
itself system of metaphysics, having its own me-
thod principles, and terminoogy. Those who condemn
philosophical studies without having been phoso
phicsl students may be safely left handy and
their terms of improperation, Sir Thomas Browne
hath their ignorance shields if it does not excuse
them There are il is true certain branches of know
ledge which is not requisite expedient should
practically experimenaly prove before deeming
ourselves qualified deliver Judgment upon them we
wsud not have to swallow prussia acid eat
senc before he ectured others toxicology will
forms should first undergo the extreme penalty Of the
Law before delivering his homes against Capital Pun
ishment These we admit exceptional cases. and
SUCH not to be pleaded by scosts in justification of
their trenchant structures science respecting which
their profundity lies only in their ignorance.
The most plausible objection to metaphysc research is
probably that which is founded the assertion that the
only possible certain science is confined to the sensible
phenomena Of Nature. This is well known, the
idea Of Bacon and in think ia to be found the only
consistent and apparently tenabe ground of opposition
to the claims of higher and ultimate knowledge
But can in fact this position be successfully main
tanned and defended? Can the human mind rest salts
fed with the perception and classification of phsno
mena, that is Of things they SCENT Does it not seek to
ascertain the reliability Of these sensations and to pene
trate the nature Of things they are? Is there, it in
qures any objective reality in nature corresponding to
our subjective IDEAS the sport of phantasmsf
Is there external reality in the mountains around
and the starry heavens above than there in
perception Of colors discrimination of tastes of
sweet and sour pleasant and bitter Is it relation to
things that is alone dscoverabe and apprecabe by the
mind, it take cognizance of things IN neseirs
existing apart from our own sensations These and
many more that we could all interesting ques-
tions the philosophy that would confne all possible
knowledge within the bounded horizon of is
PEELED to leave them in abeyance and IL is precisely here
that mental philosophy begins The mind is not content
to be hampered by the teher of the naturalist is it
willing to descend from its throne, and crawl like Ne
buchanezzar on all tours and grass II knows there
are more things In heaven and earth than such pauper
ina philosophia has dreamed of.
But il Is said If there be any truth in intellectual phi
losophy how comes il that the deepest thinkers In the
science so called arrive at such different nay contra
dictory conclusions We admit the fact but deny the
inference Under the limitations of mans present pro-
dictionary state he compelled to forego the certainty Of
mathematical demonstration in all investigation moral
subjects To quarrel with metaphysics this account
to quarrel with the constitution Of Intellectual
ture which apprchcnds truth not in its pure and solid
beam but in the scattered and reraced rays which reach
the mind through many disturbing media. The search
for truth Is struggle but for this shall give
over the search There is no discharge in this be-
truth and shall We therefore, ground our
arms in despair1 The barque in which the hopes Of
philosophy freighted has made, we admit, many a
tack and does not enter the haven like Virgfs ships,
p,no uo They that 20 down the great deep Of hui
man thought and feeling do business in mighty
They mount up TO the heavens; they go down again to
the depths they reel to and fro like drunken man. and
arc at their wits end st the desired harbor in sight
though like the Laan realms Eneas and his followers
il seems seHper ceenta retro, recedng There
many shadows in the Of speculation where a stout
ship has founderea many qucksand where whole feet
has been remorselessly sucked in the epical Black
more expresses it; here is many mirage, many fats
inorganic which has ured the mariner only deceive