Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1872-01-19

TO have devout and uncrl7leai 1cniiI1 -. -
seriously disturbed What right have these critics
10 spoil our best things for Us We shall AWAY
have grudge against NJ. Tame Tor TINS, a. We y.
towards Ruskin for bis irreyerent remarks a0Ou'
Raphaers TRANSPORTATION.
thus far then the author's positions are clear
/ We must by all means see the men Of the past,
snd see them in thst pAst,s the geologist would
/ see the rock, the bo;suist the plant, IN Situ'
/ The next thing is to interpret what We see FOR
every word and motion is but symbol OF the
/ hidden sentiment or thought. The historian e
/ skill consists in successful Interpretation.
/ Bat this is not all. Philosophy commands
/ something more. 1t seeks the causes OF tango.
] The next question is this Whence have arisen
| these sentiments and thoughts, this whole inner
/ ifeg " No matter whether the facts be physl-
I cal or moral, they ali have their causes there
is cause for ambition, for coursge, Tor truth, as
/ there is for digestion, for muscular movement,
/ for animal heat. Vice AMI virtue are products,
] ike yitriol and sugar" And IN the last ensly-
sic, it would appear. if We understand the au-
! thor. that the causes which produce virtue and
vice are not different in kind from those which
produce vitriol and sugar. that is: they are
/ eeuslly the products Of natural agencies acting
under strictly physical laws. If this be true,
' rture is no longer virtue, nor vice, vice.
Moral snd Intellectual peculiarities are to be
referred ultimately to certain primitive disposi-
tons characteristic Of the race. These underlie
all individual traits, and constitute the grand
causes in history " Religions, PHILOSOPHERS,
roetries. industries, the frame work Of society
and fsmies, are in fact only the imprints Of their
/ seal" But whence srise thete potent dispoei-
tons Of the race Civilizations. ike crystals,
/ are reducible to classification. For they are all
variations Of one primitive form or type. And
/ A. rnineralogy Is mastered when all possible va
/ ristious Of certain fundamental geometrlcal
forms are distinctly conceived snd classified, 80
( history is mastered when all possible variations
/ Of the primitive psychological type are fully
I made out 1t may be reduced to formulas,
and predicted Ike the weather. VI. Tsine has
given us his psychology Of the generic or primitive
/ man He consists ofsensstion, Imagination, and
memory This primitive mental energy admits
{ Of a double Development, speculative or pracii-
/ csl, according as the images which float within
/ revolve themselves into general conceptions or
sctiyo resolutions. Foila ie tout g Here We
/ hSye the whole Of msn in an sbridgment
/ OF this creature so sclntily clothed with facul-
ties purely it msy be said - naked came be forth
| from the womb Of his mother earth " But
/ this primor3isl type is the rudiment Of all rsces
/ and civilizations. They are brought into exist
[ euce by the modifying power Of circumstance.
The primitive maa, .. forced 10 accommodate
/ himself 10 circumstances, contracts = tempers-
/ ment and d character corresponding 10 them,
I and this character and ten permanent made stable
/ by numerous repetitious Of external impressions
/ is transmitted to his progeny" Whence By
/ long accumulation of similar Impressions the
race IL begotten and enter 8 force into history
/ Other forces c0nspire with thst Of race to pro-
duce an. elementary moral Etate in the case Of
any people. Race, surroundings and epoch are
the three prmoTdial forces VII ge combined action
| produces everything. &" In enumersting them,
we traverse the complete circle Of the agencies and
/ when We have considered race, surroundings,
! and epoch, which are the internal handspring,
/ the external pressure, and the acquired momen-
tum, we have exhausted not only the whole Of the
actual csutes but a's0 the whole Of the slols
! causaE OF motion" This might be true, if his
tory we're really what II is here assumed TO be, s
mechanism, tie simple product Of physical
forces acting under physical laws These
| grand results are produced by the action Of
/ these Causes the three chez works Of human
intelligence, religion, ST, philosophy A word
I concerning the first a religion in the view Of
the suthor, " is poem taken fl- true, ''-'' 8
/ poem accompanied by belief
Whatever develops creluiity aide by siie
with poeticsl thoughts, engenders religion, IS
whatever l0weres the temperature deposits the
dew" Christianity forms 10 exception. Ii was
IS produced " Ike the rest, and ike the rest II
differs from poetry only in the fact that men be-
lieye in it, they pr, faith in their beautiful lie.
/ Thus science explains religion. But surely
/ that cannot be true science which thus cuts away
the very prop Of hfe,s nd is opposed to the clear
est intuitions and mocks at the deepest moral
needs Of humanity But why speak Of intuitons
and moral needs The meaCre psychology OF
I NJ Tame does net embrace them. Reason, con-
cieuce, freedom. virtue, faith have no longer
any substantial reality. The magic word 81 en-
vironment," has explained them.
What Ee object TO in this whole philosophy is
/ thst il Sscri5es far TOO much efficiency 10 the
merely natural conditions within which man as
q spiritual being exists and develops himself,
and far too little to the power Of man over those
conditions Race and climate are potent in
fuenoes. but they never could create the human
will and conscience. Virtue is not the mere
production Of a zone, ike wheat. nor is II trims
mitted with the blood, like the color OF the skin.
Pu1itaEism wSs not engsnderei simply from
the fogs and rigors Of northern coast how
ever much these influences may have modified,
they did not create IL.
And while this philosophy sscribss too much
to the natural forces which operate in history, II
ascribcs nothing whatever to the Creator who
established them, and 20 the Providence which
1 cortro1e fln~,