The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-03-03
Indge Then,psen,s Roois....lI

n The Icing Forces OF the UntpefSe-
The Temple and the .UIors6IpperS. By
to be the pressntati5n of a new phiEosA
ophy, foreshadowed in a sermon by DIR:
Hnntington,C,o of Boston, Y Mass; The
first stage in the heprogreSs of the opinion
of the natural worid was when the nat
nral world was regarded as divine only
as to'what appears to be exceptional IN
its lightning, pestilence and eclipsess-
The second was dts opposite, where the
spiritualawas wholly denied. The third,
where God is believed to be over both
the spiritual and natural worlds, but
to live only in the former. The fourth
is OF will be, when the natural and
spiritual are believed to be parts of.ot1e
plan, under one, Creator. The first is
superstition; the second, skepticism,
the third, error; the fourth, faith,
knowledge and truth. Seizing on this
predicate, Mr.. Thompson advances TO
build new philosophy which Will
teach what neither Plato, Locke, Bacon,
the philosophers of Germany or-those
of France ever attained to. He makes.
but one step to his end in this volume,
while marking Ithe remaining two.-,
This one is principally fundamental.-
1t treats of elements, forces, sublecnSl-
ties and objectivilies; method, tate,
God, Observation-Disclosures TO be employ
ed in future work, the materials of COM
struction in further definitions, dc. The
second volume is to openthe phenome-I
nelOgy. of nature and life, and the third,
ontology and phenomena In their pro-
1epsis. @
We have stated the general DRIFT of
this work-one,,o of a class which can
only be reviewed as it should be and
Sufficiently opened in as many pages
as the work itself. 10 WewiSh to credit
Mr. fThompson with very exhaustive
study, with much prolonged Thought
and with a strong effort to embody and
describes a system which he thinks Will
comprehend the truth of all other sys-
TENS, and be a permanent path for stn-
idents. There are all the evidences OF
Ingenious labor; bnt-and we hint IL
Inildly-a very strong doubt arises
whether the author is clear in his own
cognitions, and CONCLUSIONS whether
he has mastered the mystery W hichwa
too great for Aristotle, for Rlato, ior
Socrates for Bacon, for Locke, for
Cousin, for Kant, for thousands of great
thinkers, in all ages and countries, VINO
have held the same result before them.
Unless the finite can comprehend the
infinite, unless the less can contain the
greater, all attempts of human wit to
explain fully and harmontously the
divine idea must be a failure. Technt-l
calities, however abstruSe, are only
new difficulties, rather than aids, and
the most curiouslyl complex forms OF
GnQuHnE Dull IEGou
Thompson has really solved the riddle
to his own'satisfhetior the world will
be no wiser, for not one, IN ten tholtSGlld
can comprehend his explanations. II he
has not, the world is only troubled by
a parnelion which bewilders its COM
prehension of the true sun. This want
of lucid composition islnot only sert-
GUS drawback to study, which will llkeep
off many, but it is a grave argument
fordoubt. Plato, Bacon and Edwards
dwelt on the loftiest themes which can
be reached by reason. They are simple
and comprehensive. Sometimes their
thoughts cannot be taken in by the
reader; sometimes an argument re-.
quires long study to be mustered; but
the difficulty is in the vastness of the
thought and the limited scope oflthe
| reader. Men of average ability, or
little more, can follow Edwards in his
grand Essay on the VIII, which stands
to this day the highest achieyement Of
pure reason, and can profit by 1t; for
President Edwards only sought to de-
scribe a complete knowledge, fully rea-
soned out and matured. He described
too, in pure, simple, nervous English
idiom, free from the ten-fold compounds
of weaker writers. Any point of Ed
wards, or. Bacon, or Locke can be un-
derstood, save only. when the vital
thought is beyond an ordinary grasp.
That which is difficult of comprehen-
sion in Mr.. Thompson is often so from
verbal faults. He coins words, and
then employs them at will. He,
wrenches old terms often to new signi-
fications. He mixes the two. His very
dictionary almost requires another die
tionary for its comprehension. These,
it may be said, are not faults of the first
magnitude, though to be, regretted If
the complete work is meriborious they
are but blemishes. We have not the
completed work, and cannot speak of
it as whole. What we have is hardly
more than the prolegomena of the plan.
1t has the faults and the merits to which
we have referred. When the author
has finished his work we shall be dis
posed to treat IL as awhole, If by some
good fortune the heremafndersrises above
those mists which embarrass the intro
duction.at.l s.foal 5i --aij ,!lsslIy,, lz9.ts