New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-07-19
GREATNESS OF THE PAST.
CIVILIZATION OF THE HTvnooa
DISCOURSE BY DIR. JONES BEFORE THE coycoRr
SCHOOL or PHILOSOPHY

DISCOURSE BY DR. JONES BEFORE THE coycoRr
SCHOOL or PHILOSOPHY.
Boston, July lS.-Dr. ii. X. Jones was the
essayst this morning at the Concord School Of Philoso
ply. The title Of his paper Premises. Predie&
tions and Outlines Of Christian Philosophy" He began
by marking that many persons think philosophy Ia
pressed by needlessy obscure terms bnt IL must he
membcred that all sciences have their techncates.
Philosophy, analysed. may be termed the knowing OF
truth aud its application TO the conduct Of hu'
manity." In the knowing OF truth there
are three classes First, sensuOus knowing;
ond. scientific knowing third logical knowing or all
knowledge there must be- promised q knOwer and o
movable. In our case man Is the knower, and the
world the soul and God the movable After con-
tnuing at length In this strain the essayst proceeded
to consider India rs epitomizing the history of tho
world in that she has experienced all degrees OF power
and wealth. and has now sunk low TO degardation.
We apt to forget. he said that there once In
that country empire, wealth and civil government a
scale which has not since been equald The Hnoo OF
several thousand years finely cultivated all
idoatrous, and he worshipped God. Dr. Jones
traced in admirable way the glory OF the ancient
Hindoo empire one city Of which had 675 For
years the wealth OF the world poured into lap ex-
ceedng computation and belief. They possessed .
standing army which made use Of 5000 elephants OF
These reports not all incredible when
consider the absorption Of the wealth OF China, Japan
and other countries, which was going on. The
Greece and Eyp5 entertained great projects,
simply stup Idous The also IN
very advanced state. In the polishing Of diamond,
which generally posed to be OF modern
growth they were proficient They were an agricultural,
commercial and manufacturing people. However low
and deba=ed the Hind0o may appear there can os
no doubt that lie then surpassed IN civil government and
glory.
There then ensued discussion, in which Mr.. Alcott
remarked that tine Impression left him the very
remarkable manifestations OF the power Of the human
mind IN the past He raised the question whether
we might not reasonably believe that there
have been people IN the past a.es
before human history who gods compared with
and whether the progress Of civilization has been down
ward instead Of upward, generally supposed Miss
Peabody panied b. th that man Ia inferior TO his
work., instanced in EurOpe's cathedrals. When we
think Of the small ends and which our own ener-
getic people have, It II they were destroying
themselves. Thus IL u credible that there may have
been far superior 10 Us IN CIVILIZATION.
One Of the participants in the debate
paid rather doubtful compliment 10 Dr.
Jones by emarkng that she had failed ~ understand
his remarks completely she would Ike To near him
peat this lecture about six times Pr0e Harris
remarked how apt TO LOOK back disparaylngiy
the past because only their runs but
works before they ruined. He fur her
very interesting review OF the latest sclentlnc
opinions as 70 the prehistoric AGES