Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1854-08-05


feag and sentiment instead Of the literature which
laed and Knocked and thrust out its tongue. Instead
ofotaire and Dderot and Voney, St Pierre and
CLeaubrand and de stasl French men and French
wcen who had laughed together Cdndids now
VIC over Paul and Rrgne The Genie du Christianism
suanted the Encyclopedia in the popular heart if not
inie popular mind.
new school Of docrinares in philosophy soon after
IMPLANTED by Roger Coard, to whom succeeded Maine
dSiran the most original beyond all question Of the
maers of French psychology. To de Brian succeeded
Cosin himself the founder Of Eclecticism, the last
wei in all philosophy" as philosophy is said to be the
lasword in all science
e have on another occasion sketched the salient fea-
Of Ececcism and traced the process of its forma-
tounder the hand Of NJ. Cousin. There are those who
casee no beauty nor symmetry in the system with
with Cousin has identified his To such, Eclecti-
csns nothing better than the syncretism Of the
Aleandrian school Of philosophers congeries Of frag
rather than we'll ordered and homogeneous struc-
ture To others again this body of metaphysical and
psychological doctrine seems very palace OF truth,
like he Parthenon of DID, combining the venerabeness
Of antiquity with the grace and freshness of modern
building. For part we hesitate not an instant
to av ourselves Eclectcs but are not quite willing
to let H. Cousin pick all system for u.s. We adopt
his method without adopting all his philosophy we deal
with NJ Cousin himself he deals with others: we ap-
propriste from his teachings whatever we deem true We
reject whatever We deem false or unsound
The compilation before contains the abridged put
exact expression Of Cousins convictions on the funda-
mental points of phiosophc science Under these three
heads the True the Beautiful and the Good, Cousin
embraces the whole doctrine Of psychology aesthetics
ethics natural right public law, and theodicea
that perilous rendezrou he terms it, where many
systems have been shattered by rocks swallowed up
from their own nothingness.
The lecturer commences with genial and dscrmina-
tive eulogium Des Carries the founder of all modern
philosophy whom it the spirit that animates it
and the method that constitutes its power Two periods
distinguished in the Cartesan in which the
method Of De Cartes from its newness, often mis-
conceived the other, in which the true Cartesian spirit
and method we're consistently and fully followed
To the first belong Malebranche Spnoza, and Lebnitz
the second the philosophers of the eighteenth century
The great schools which again divide the eighteenth
fury those Of England, France, Scotland and Ger
many; that is to say, the schools Of Locke, Condac,
Reid and Kant Among these various and Earring schools
Cousin presents himself as mediator and pacfcator.
He sides, by turns with Locke with Reid and with
Kant Abandoning all the exclusive sides by which these
systems repel each other, he adopts from them he
thinks all the truths which they contain and by which
they establish their claim be considered partial re-
of intellectual science The Cancellation of
these truths ia point of view elevated and
and their incorporation in system which shall
be capable of containing them in harmony, and of
petng and explaining them form what is called EoLEo
rIcIsM the philosophy Of the nineteenth century"
Now, philosophy in oil times Cousin declares turns
upon the fundamental ideas of the true the beautiful and
the good The idea of the true philosophcay develop
ed is psychology logic, metaphysic; the idea of the
good private and public morals the idea of the 6sa
fM is aesthetics and literary artistic criticism.
Without presuming follow the lecturer through ell
these categores shall pause for moment in adnira
ton at his crques French art in the seventeenth
century. II "Divine philosophy" were as g harsh and
grabbed dull fools suppose it to be- according the
of Milton, the reproach will hardly be deemed to
lie against any thing that NJ Cousin has written in this
department Of letters and least Of all will any thing dry
ddactc be found in the genial dsquiston on art as
contained in the tenth lecture Of the present volume
We quote at length for the entertainment of our read
ers. If we mistake not, however, they will find the
Frsnchman less than the philosopher in the following
citations:
France, careless Of her glory, does not appear to
have the least notion that she reckons her annals per-
haps the greatest century Of humanity that which EN-
braces the greatest number of of every
kind When, pray you, have politicians like Henry w
Richelieu Mazarn Colbert Louis XIV been seen giving
each other the hand do not pretend that each Of
them has no rival, even superiors. Alexander,
Cesar, Charlemagne, perhaps excel them. But Alex
ander has but single contemporary that be
pared with him. his father Philip Caesar cannot even
have suspected that Octayus would day be worthy Of
him; Charlemagne is colossus in the desert; - while
among US these five succeed each other without an
interval press upon each other and have thus to speak
single soul And by what officers they were served
What other time, at least among the moderns, has
seen hoursng together so many poets Of the first order
We have it is true, neither Homer nor Dante nor Mil
ton, Tasso The epic with its primitive sim
pcity is interdiced to But in the drama We scarce
ly have equals Let US dare to say that, in our
opinion, Hschylus, Sophocles and Eurpides together
do equal Cornee for none of them has known and
expressed like him what is of all things most truly touch
ing, great soul at with itself between generous
passion and duty Cornele is the creator of q new
pathetic unknown to the ancents and to all moderns be-
fore him. He disdains address common and subaern
passions ne does not seek to rouse pity and terror
Aristotle demands, who limits himself to erecting into
maxims the practice of the Greeks Shakespeare
admit is superior to Cornee in extent and richness
Of dramatic genius But il Corneille has less
imagination he has more soul less varied he is more
profound The scenes that he gives less heartrend
ing, but at delicate and profound What
is the melancholy Of Hamlet the grief of King Lear even
the dsdainfu ntrepidity Of Cesar in comparison with
the magnanmity Of Augustus striving be master Of
himself well the universe in comparison with Chi
meme sacrificing love to honor especially in comparison
with Pauline suffering the bottom of her heart
involuntary sigh for that she must not love I"
or Racine he disoourses as fsllows:
% Racine was not born to paint heroes but he does
paint and that admirably with his natural passions
and the most natural well the most touching Of ALL
love- Corneille speaks the language Of statesmen
soldiers heologians, philosophers, and clever Of