New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-09-13

mans, Green u GO.
Mr.. Crozier adopts argumentative device
which Is really injurious TO his work. Not salts
fed with Analysing the processes OF history, ne
affects also to substantate his conclusions pro-
phetically as II one. standing where the old
Greek naturalist stood. could foresee the course
OF the two great streams Of philosophy and re-
ligion down to the time when they flowed to-
gether In Christianity. Fortunately the impera-
tive demands of his theme keep him closer 10
the strict historical method than might be am
ticipated from some OF his words at the outset.
He has In reality only two lines of tendency 10
deal with-Judaism and Heenism: for after
several chapters Of criticism he throws out Hin
dooism in all its forms as wholly unfruitful In
particular. the cosmogony of the modern theoso-
phists awakens his contempt as scheme whlch
ignores all the known facts OF nature HELEN
ism and Judaism. however. he holds to have had
q development that fulfilled the law Of evolu-
ton. They did not shrink from their environ
ment, but pressed upon It. They accepted the
world on the whole reality and not de-
fusion. and theory with them was brought
back frequently to the test of external things.
Or, not to make them conscious OF the purpose
which they served, say rather that the World
Spirit working in them found them amenable
to what in modern times is called the scientific
Of facts. 1t is not positive what Mr.. Crozers
personal views may be in religion and phil
osophy. But his working hypothesis Is sort
Of pantheism in which an intelligence Of some
sort Is striving toward ideals which the history
OF humanity enables one to make out vaguely.
This intelligence which he calls the World
Spirit, Is not the deiied humanity Of Comte nor
the Unknowable of Herbert Spencer 1t is more
like the soul of the world in the verses Of Virgil,
q convenient term for implying forces too vast
and varied to be named
Plainly, he cannot begin with a Deity one and
supreme for, according TO his view Of history,
the thought OF such deity had not yet occurred
to the Greeks at the dawn of their philosophy.
nor to the Hebrews race until long after
their settlement in Palestine. The Greeks had
gods but no God: the Hebrews had tribal deity,
who, powerful as he might be. did not preclude
the existence of rivals worshpped by other
tribes. Now. this condition of affairs could not
last The tentative solutions of the World Spirit
varied as the aspects Of the problem.
Even the agnostic method Of ignoring the whole
crowd of gods tried in Buddhism. But the
Greeks started with a separation between the
natural and the supernatural. Perhaps they
were near enough still to primitive thought TO
see in the gods only aspects Of nature. AT any
rate their first researches aimed at a physical
origin OF things. not at a creative beginning.
They tried water and air. and so forth. as ele-
ments. But they soon found difficulties. which
they overcame by conjecture that these ele-
ments were only visible notifications OF some
thing boundless. formless, invisible. Now, as
the formless cannot of itself produce FORM the
next thing for the Greek imagination was to in
vest this infinite, unseen, underlying nobody
knows-what with number and geometrical rela-
tons Mr. Crozier's World Spirit was evolving
in Hellenic thought something very like Itself.
1t all but finished the picture when 1t inspired
the conception Of vital principle soul,
Psyche. as the cause Of all that is. But this is
always the way When you get matter attenu
ated that you can only think It. and neither feel
1t nor see 1t, the next thing is to endow it with
life and then II is soul. But the moment this is
done the new life suppose to pervade the uni
verse rises up in opposition TO all that Is visible.
and the opinion energies that all things which
can he seen or felt are mere unreaties. momen-
tary phenomena OF course. somebody soon dis
covered a way OF fusng pure materialism and
pure idealsm into something that was neither
the one nor the other AS this effort at compro-
mise gains strength, IL takes away from the ele-
ments OF matter all their initiative Primitive
man thinks everything much alive as himself;
but Greek thought had now distracted all Ike
from matter II at once proceeded to give back
1ybat II had taken away Love and hate, attrac-
ton and repulsion. not inherent in things, but
given TO them produce all the harmonies and inc
discords Of the universe. The harmonies must
be good the dscords evil. With little prefer
ence for idealism. ii came to pass that soul was
credited with all the good and matter with all
the evil a superstition that IS cherished to this
day. The Greeks observed that these were so
nrS1
supposed intelligence. and intelligence implied
creative power, wisdom. goodness management
fitness Of means 10 ends.
Thus philosophy for Socrates came In touch
with moral questions, and really began def
mite career Of which the outcome could be In
mart foreseen But Socrates practically ignored
physical questions, and so Plato, accepting the
SUPREME Intelligence which Socrates had en-
riched by his quest for knowledge made II the
pivot OF theory OF the world which MT Cro-
xier picturesquely describes as fan opene9
With the aid Of notions taken from all previous
thinkers 20 It's fullest breadth. But Plato failed
10 grasp the idea Of emanaton and movement.
II the ribs Of his fan had been rays from the
centre. with Intervening connections he might
have anticipated evolution. as Aristotle ala
when he endowed the Supreme Intelligence not
merely with persuasive power over Piatos IDEAS
but with the ideas themselves. But Aristotle
failed also In not endowing his Supreme Inteli-
gence with the power Of motion. This was for
him the property OF something that was neither
matter nor intelligence II remained for Jew
10 get over this difficulty.
Now Judaism considered as an evolution was
not a process OF thought but an experience Of
lie for a race somehow separated for ages from
other races This experience began in slavery.
and thus In accord with the relation between
gods and men viewed in paganism. The first
steps It took toward freedom were also It's first
steps toward isolation. The wandering band OF
escaped slaves. while they never quite gave up
the hope OF making their God visible 10 them