The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-09-02
DEWEY'S LECTURE
On Nineteenth Century
Thought
Rousseau Uttered More Than q
Century Ago What TolStoi is
Advocating Today.

The preliminary discourse of Dr.
Dewey in his lectures upon Nine
teenth Century Thought" delivered al
the High School last evening, dealt
with the influence of Rousseau upon
French political history and literature,
and marked the first great attack up
on political and industrial institutions
as conducted at that period; he clearly
brought out the fact of Rousseaus be-
ing the father of anarchy of the coop
erative and intellectual growth as dis
tinguished from the rabid and bomb
throwing anarchy of the present day.
Or. Dewey says that TolStOi, although
perhaps never reader of Rousseau,
writes along practically the same. lines
as the great French writer, and the
latter's writings have the same charac-
teristics-of taking opposites of the
same question in his writings, as did
Rousseau. Rousseau made democracy
a moral, not simply a political, idea,
anu that although not the originator of
the phrase of Liberty, Equality, Fra
ternity," the watchwords of the French
revolution and the present Republic of
France, yet he defined his political stat
us in the three words. Rousseau stated
principles of freedom of the individual
and of social cooperation without de-
veloping them to their full extent, and
in such a way as to leave them op-
posed to one another
When everything is running
smoothly as matter Of course with
the individual, or with society as a
whole, there is no particular need for
reflection, for thought; from an evOlu-
uOnary standpoint, men would never
have thought unless they had to, GA
unless there was some gain in the
first place, or some immediate deVel-
opment to be reached by it. 1t is when
one is in the stress of difficulty that he
is compelled to reflect to take stock
of the past, and to figure out new
mode of conduct which is adjusted to
the new situation. The same cOndi-
ton is true in the life, as | have said,
of society; there are certain critical pc
riods in the history of men in general
when old institutions seem to be
breaking up and the changed order is
coming in, new conditions have to be
met. When society does reflect, it is
sign of philosophical thought. But the
more one studies the actual history of
thought, the closer relation one sees
between the larger crises of historical
changes and historical sequences.
But in this larger sense the history
of thought is just as much part OF the
general struggle of men for freedom, as
is any political revolution that ever
took place. In the particular topic of
this evening the connection is so close
that it needs no technical knowledge
to point it out All the historians of
the French revolution point out the
fact that it was the result of an intel
lectual movement for freedom which
began earlier in the century, and of
these writer's the writer who had the
greatest influence upon the French
revolution was undoubtedly Rousseau;
he stands prominently at the head,
but he is a man who is out of all pro-
portion. seemingly, to his own charac-
ter and the COherency or consistency OF
his thought. In one of the references of
Lowell he has an essay entitled 'ROus-
seau, the Sentimentalist' in that he
points out the weakness of his teach
ings, and the lack of logical cOnsisten-
cy in his (Rousseau's) writings. There
is no principle which he propOunded in
one writing that he did not PROFOUND
the opposite view in another. or later
writing. He was one of the most ener-
getic forces in bringing about an edu-
catiOnal reform in schools and in fam
lilies, for perhaps no one of that period
Or up to that period has recognized the
claims of children more earnestly than
Rousseau has, but, as | have said, even
here he expressed a contrary view in
practice, and put his own children in
an asylum, and did net give them the
advantage of the parental training
which he in his writings claimed was
theirs. This shows he was not an at
tractive character, and yet there can be
no doubt that there is no man in the
eighteenth century whose influence has
been so widespread as this sentimental
list, this illogical thinker and writer
Now that is a paradox but this dis
appears by analysis. 1t was these Op-
pOsite views displayed in his writings
which gave him so much prominence;
his was a time of change from the old
order Of thought to the new; various
writer's later than Rousseau. such. for
instance. as Carlyle, as type. eX-
pressed themselves thus: The ola Or
der is dead. but the new order is not
yet born 1t is the writer who sums
up the upheavals Of society who will
echo and report TO the people their
feelings and thoughts, who will have
the most hold upon them. and this was
true Of Rousseau. Of course with the
renaissance this change from the old
principle to the new began It is i'm
possible, of course, for those who
have been brought up as we have been
in the AnglO-SaXon traditions and at
mOsphere to realize how thoroughly
the intellectual life Of Europe. even
in the eighteenth century was still con-
trolled by the principle of authority
The tradition Of Louis XIV, who said.
I am the State still held good in
France in ROusseau's period and later.
but France. putting Great Britain to
one side. was the most active literary
life of Europe artistic Paris was the
worlds capital of culture and art, of
all. in fact. that could be defined by
the name of civilizations and yet there
was a regime of absolute authority
which held it back from full develop
ment. The church, even, had done
what it could to confine intellectual