The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-11-10

Consciousness is not solitary sovereign, ban
ished beyond creation, upon the throne of a
silent eternity, and an absolute existence
which resembles existence in no respect what
ever. He is God, at once true and real, sub
stance and cause, one and many, eternity and
time, essence and life, end and middle, at the
summit of existence, and at its base, infinite
and finite together; in a word, a Trinity-being
at the same time God, Nature, and Humanity y
His separation of reason and reasoning, and the
results of his boosted Spontaneous appercep-
ton" are very nearly allied to those of Schel-
ling's Intellectual Intuition;" yet ] suppose
you would shrink from the. "absolute identity y
of the latter?'
"'You have not stated the question fairly, sir
He reiterates that the absolute belongs to none
of us. We perceive truth, but do not create
It'll retorted Beulah.
"'You will perhaps remember his saying, ex-
plicitly, that we can comprehend the absolute
Eyes, l recollect; and, moreover, he de-
clares that eve are conducted to God by ray
of His own being
"'Can limited faculties comprehend the in
finite and eternal Creator?'
"'We do not attain knowledge of him
through finite channels. Cousin contends that
it is by means Of relation to the absolute that
we know God
"FThen, to know the absolute, or God, you
must be the absolute or, in other words, God
only can find God. This is the simple doc.
trine, when you unwind the veil he has cleverly
hung over it. True, he denounces pantheism !;
but here is pantheism of the eclectic patent, diff
fering from that of other systems only in subtle
ty of expression, wherein Cousin certainly ex-
cells. One of the most profound philosophical
writer's of the age, and one whose opinion on
ton, has remarked, in an analysis Of Cousins
system, "with regard to his notion of Deity, we
have already shown how closely this verges
upon the principle of pantheism. Even if we
admit that it is not a doctrine, like that of
Spinoza, which identifies God with the abstract
idea of substance; or even like that of Hegel,
which regards Deity as synonymous with the
absolute law and process of the universe if we
admit, in fact, that the Deity of Cousin pos.
sesses conscious personality, yet still it is one
which contains in itself the infinite personality
and consciousness of every subordinate mind.
God is the ocean-we are but the waves the
ocean may be one individuality, and each wave
another but still they are essentially one and
the same. We see not how Cousins theism
can possibly be consistent with any idea Of
moral evil; neither do we see how, starting
from such dogma, he can ever vindicate and
such theistic principles, all sin must be simply
defect and all defect must be absolutely fatui-
tous" Eclecticism was beautiful but frail
levee, opposed to the swollen tide of skepticism,
and, as in every other crevasse, when swept
away, it only caused the stream TO rush on more
madly'
"He watched her closely as he spoke, and OBJ
served the culver of her long, curling lashes.
"Thus much the rejected lover; but when
Ethnology beckoned her on to conclusions
apparently antagonistic to the revealed system,
aud the stony face of geology seemed radiant
with characters of light, which she might cipher
and find some security in, when the sages Of
geology talked of the pre- Adamic eras, and of
mans ending the slowly-forged chain, of which
the radiata formed the lowest link and she was
told that in those pre-Adamic ages, palaeontolo-
gists find no trace whatever of that golden
time, when the vast animal creation lived in
harmony, and bloodshed was unknown; ergo,
mans fall in Eden had no agency in bringing
death into the world ergo that chapter in
Genesis need trouble her no more when she
learns that she was the browning intelligence
in the vast progression; that she would ulti-
mately become part of Deity when finally,
shuddering in despair, she has recourse to her
guardian, and asks him if he can be content
ed with the utter negation of the grand prob
lens of ontology,' and he replies, a profound
philosOphic writer Of the age intimates that the
various psychological systems which have so
long vexed the world are but yelled ontologic
speculations. What matters the machinery of
ideas but enabling philosophy to cope sue
cessfully with Ontology? Philosophy is huge
wheel, which has been revolving for ages early
hung their finely spun webs on
its spokes, and metaphysicians fthe nineteenth
theories as the wheel revolves. The history of
philosophy shows but a reproduction of old sys-
TENS and methods ofinquiry. Beulah, no mine
of ontologic truth has been discovered. Con-
scous of this, our seers tell MS there is nothing
new but "eclecticism!" 0ntology is old as hui
man nature, yet the stone of Sisyphus continues
to roll back upon the laboring few who strive
to impel it upward. Oh, child, do you not see
how matters stand? Very remarkable child
if she did Why, how cap the finite soul
cope with Infinite Being2 This is one form
the other, if we can take eognizance of the
Eternal and SelEExisting Being, underlying
all phenomena, why, then, we are part and par
eel of that Infinay he hits the nail on the
head and is the happy man; they marry, and
may at this moment, for aUght we know, be
talking cosmothetic idealisn, or hypothetical
dualism, of noetic and dianeetic principles, of
reported between them are Sir, can you un-
derstand how matter creates mind p"
We have serious fault to end with the book,
not because it is bad one--but because it is
a good one-because it seems to have sprung
from a mind earnest, active, Striving indeed to
cope with questions far beyond its powers,
yet showing by the very struggle capacity Of
growth which promises welF~for future excel |
ence. We do not object that the book is |
but that, being metaphysical, it |
is not enough so. We are taken with Beulah, |
step by step, through the successive stages Of !
skepticism; we see her entangled in the meshes
Of one ratonalistic system after another, gravi-
Lating more and more rapidly downward, till she
seems suspended by a thread over the dreary gulf
Of atheism, when, all of sudden, the curtain
drops, the chapter closes, and when the next
opens, there sits the heroine, whisked up high |
and dry on the peaceful hills of orthodoxy-by |
what hocus-pocus we are not informed. OF |
his we have right to complain. What was
he object in leading US down by regular and
Tell-delined steps, if we were not to be shown
he ascending pathway? If we were TO be
loisted up blindly, why were we not let down
We do not care to know by what
processes the mind is degraded from a sublime |
faith to selfconceited, ignoble, and most |
wretched skepicism, but if you insist upon our
knowing, tell us also by what processes it is re.
stored to its former state. To skip" this |
most important and most interesting phase is
a slashing of the Gordian knot, quite feminine,
but not quite logical. We expected it to be
united. Cutting it was not ain the bond.r