New-York tribune., 1870-01-07

tuallv TO escape from the trammels of fixed theology,
a poetry that sparkled rather than shOne,
that gilded rather than irradated that allied lsei
with wit and not with passion-the poetry III
word of Boileau and of Pope-these were the chiei
indications of mental and spiritual activity INC
wars of the period mainly dynastic struggles
like that of the Succession in Spain, and OF the
Jacobite rebelions in England. French culture
reigned supreme throughout Europe, and those who
did not bow to it were or were considered desti-
tute of all culture. Social life distinguished in
high places by corrupt frivolity in lower strata by
n barren conyentionalism or extreme grossness.
II was the age of Walpoe, of Frederick William L.,
of Louis XV., while he was still Louis the Well
Beloved"
In contrast with this period of torpor and sterlty
and passing over the intermediate stages when
latent forces at work, we find the latter portion
of the same century an era of extraordinary convul
sons of violent conflicts of ideas of destructive and
constructive energy. 1t is only with the religious
aspect of the period that are here concerned, OF
perhaps should rather say its irrelgious aspect
since what appears at the first glance Is "lde-
spread and violent revolt against Christianity, an
attempt to blot out the imprint of eighteen centu-
ries And it must be confessed that Robesperre and
his associates in bapzing the new era as the Age OF
Reason. were really giving it no unfit designation
one in fact, of wider application than they them
selves imagined. That force which had been chained
| up throughout the Middle Ages, and which, as we
have sad the Reformation had let loose, now began
to show itself its full proportions and to produce
its full effect In literature in science in politics, 1t
was quickening energy, generatye OF new things
that should take the place of the old. In religion, on
| the other hand it appeared to have no aim, no
tendency, but that Of destruction. How should it
! have been otherwisei Reason cannot be the basis
of faith Its province is to search, to sift to reject
whatever is demonstrably false 1t steps beyond its
province when it attempts to satisfy or stltie long
ngs and aspirations which rise from the depths of
the SOUL depths which it cannot sound and which it
would seek in vain to FL or cover up. Accordingly
its usurped rule in the domain of religion was short
lived. The Atheistc frenzy came quickly to an end
Desm showed itself in two different forms. Dr.
| Hagenbach has drawn just distinction between the
belief OF Votare and that of Rousseauthe positive
and mocling spirit Of the one, the inquiring and
reverential spirit of the other; the former demand
ing God merely rs explanatory of the Universe, as
at once necessity of reason and its supreme embodi
ment: the latter embracing the conception Of mans
affinity with the divine essence of his dependence and
responsibility of his constant relations his power of
communion with God. And the difference was one
not merely of ideas, of spirit, but above ALL
of power and influence. Yoltaire was essentially a
man of the departing era, the era which he himself
helped to destroy lie was the greatest and the last
of the Beaur-espiits. Though he rIdiculed certain
aspects of the world around him, yet he belonged to
it he made himself at home in it; he had no differ
| ent ideal. Rousseau on the contrary, judged and
rejected it, His mission was that of "a Reformer.
Luther was not more aggrieyed by the corruptions
in the Church than Rousseau by the frivoty OF his
| age What he denounced was not this or that doc
trine this or that practice but the holowness OF all
professions the perverted character of all action.
He preached Gospel of Nature-an ideal Nature, in
| which the instincts of an unperyerted heart and
| conscience were to hold sway. With this idea,
whatever his personal errors, Rousseau was thor
oughy penetrated. Hence the stlmulative and
awakening influence of his writings on an age whose
instructive beliefs had withered under the teachings
of the MISUNDERSTANDING which a dogmatic
and formal creed had power to counteract Rous-
seau brdged over the chasm which had opened
between reason and faith If he did not rebuild the
edIice of religion, he restored the foundations on
which it had rested.
Turning from France to Germany. from Catholic
ism to Professionalism we find religion not Violent
y assailed but subjected to process Of refined anal
ysis in which it threatens to evaporate an impal
pable essence. The course and operation of the
idealisc philosophy occupy as we have already in
timated, large space in DR.. Hagenbach's exposi-
each system but he endeavors to deduce the charac
teristic ideas of each, and its special relations with
theology. We do not think him very successful in
this and perhaps such task was simply impossible.
The difficulty of cOmprehending a philosophical
system does not lie in its methods and its technicai-
ties On the contrary these are the means by which.
with patient study, it may become Ineligible
When we abandon these we lose ali precision; we
get either no conceptions wholly indefinite onos
The latter is the case with DR.. IIagenbach lie IS 80
afraid of going too deep that he makes incisiOn
whatever. Instead of the intrcacies inherent in the
subject we have vagIeness that does not even per-
nit us to indulge in conjecture. SO far as we have
been able to get any general definite impression,
il is this that whereas Kant placed religion alto
Reher outside the proper domain of philosophy, his
successOrs-Fichte, Schelling, Hegel-have sought,
each in his own way, to produce an interfusOn of
the two. Kant leaves us TO hopes and consultations
of religion as reasonable suppositions. With Fichte
they were subjective realities the product of the
soul itself strenuousy aspiring and endeavoring
OF the sublimated theories of Schelling and Hegel
we shall venture only TO say that they far coincide
as to make religions conceptions prominent and even
preGminent in the realm of philosophy finding
place for every dogma and historical fact yet melt
ing them all into new forms, in which they appear
rather as images reflections than substantial real
ities
Whatever we may think of this philosophy, and of
the great literature which sprang up beside it and
was so deeply mbued with it, we must admit that
they could only have arisen in the bosom of Protes
| tantism, in communities educated in the habit of
free thought. and open TO influences from every side
And the reaction of this philosophy and this litera-
ture on Protestant theology not less direct con-
sequence of the Reformation. The Roman Catholic
| Church may dwinde in numbers, may be driven