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Jan. 25, 1851.] *1l * ¦ ¦»**»**? 85
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This is the age of Newspapers. A recent ...
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a new philosophy: the alpha. The Alpha; ...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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There Is A Story Told Of A Provincial Ed...
bandeau on her forehead has the word " concorde " very illegibly engraved . This is read : —Sous la Republique Francais on voit des tresses { ditresse ) , mats on ne voit pas la concorde ( Under the Republic we see distress , but , we do not see concord ) . The rev erse of the medal shows the words , " Liberte ' . Egalite . FraterniteV' After each word there is a full stop—or , as the French call it , un point . You have only to remember that point means none , and then read the inscription as an irony -. —Liberfe ? point . Egalite ? point . Fraterniti ? point .
Jan. 25, 1851.] *1l * ¦ ¦»**»**? 85
Jan . 25 , 1851 . ] * 1 l * ¦ ¦»**»**? 85
This Is The Age Of Newspapers. A Recent ...
This is the age of Newspapers . A recent calculation made in Vienna gives no less than 1282 journals and papers as actually known in Europe , not including therein Austria ! There are of course many provincial pap ers not included in this list , but the following comparison is curious . In Paris 160 papers of various kinds are published ; in London , 97 ; in Berlin , 79 ; in Leipsig , 68 ; in St . Petersburg , 36 . The number of journals published in Germany , exclusive of Austria , in the German language , is 645 , nearly three times as many as Paris and London put together .
A New Philosophy: The Alpha. The Alpha; ...
a new philosophy : the alpha . The Alpha ; ort the First Principle , of the Human Mind . A Philosophical Enquiry into the Mature of Truth . Chapman and Hall . The author of this strange volume comes before the world with lofty pretensions . He is not a truth seeker , but a truth propounder ; he brings a revelation , not an enquiry . He pronounces all that has gone before—all that philosophies and religions have offered to us in the 6 hape of a solution , to be sterile and false . He brings with him that " Truth which is the exponent of all Truth , " and which sweeps away Philosophy , Religion , Morality , _ to place in their stead one luminous principle which shall enlighten the world .
Now , it is always a matter of legitimate suspicion when a man thus sets himself in antagonism to the whole past ; and this suspicion will operate so injuriously to the author that , instead of listening to his arguments , men will shrug their shoulders and pass on . As a philosopher , therefore , he has been guilty at the outset of a most unphilosophical disdain for his own race ;
but we could willingly overlook that , or a much worse fault in an author who really opened new tracts of thought , or rendered old tracts more solid , more even , and more serviceable . Setting aside the claims of this writer to a possession of God ' s truth on the highest of all subjects , let us calmly ask whether he is in possession of man ' s truth on * the subject—or whether even he has a plausible and truthful-looking scheme to propose ?
We are bound to answer both questions with an emphatic No . The fault may be in our long training in the old philosophies—in a leaven of the world-old ignorance—which may have so dulled our vision , that we cannot recognize the pure white of truth . Let it be granted so . Let the fault be wholly ours , we have then to ask : How does the author expect mankind to be convinced of the truth of his system if their former training have so unfitted them to recognize what he believes to be self evident ? For ourselves , we are forced to judge this system as we judge other systems , and we find it far from containing " the Truth which is the exponent of all Truth "; on the contrary , we find it a curious mixture of assumption , confusion of ideas , and metaphysical word juggling .
First and foremost we have to declare our conviction that the author is radically unphilosophical in his methods , that he is a man never trained to any one science , or so trained as not to have disciplined his thoughts into effective action . Trusting rather to the native force of his intellect , and the happy results of long-continued introspection , than to the ascertained methods of enquiry , he becomes enmeshed in the cobwebs of his own speculations . Thus it is that he can sit down satisfied with
having discovered the absolute truth , and all the vhile be cheating himself with metaphy « ical juggleries like these ( which are the great truths he announces as discoveries ) : The First Principle of till things is intelligence . If there were no ignorance there could be no error . If there were no injustice there could be no crime . If there were , no error , no crime , there would be no unhappiness and the tnrtues would disappear . The reader may smile , but we assure him the
revelation of Alpha is contained m the above sentences . Much demonstration is employed to prove that Intelligence is the Principle of all things , that God is Intelligence , that Man is a lesser Intelligence , that Intelligence is happiness and perfection , while unhappiness and imperfection result from ignorance only . If we were all intelligent we should all be virtuous , because " right convictions compel right sentiments and right actions . "
We believe we have done the author no injustice in this statement , and we fear no contradiction from scientific thinkers when we say that such a statement implies a profound disregard for philosophic method , and a profound misconception of human nature . We will show this presently ; meanwhile let us simply demur to the gratuitous assumption with which he starts , viz ., that Intelligence is the First Principle of all things . That is the sort of
phrase which metaphysicians glibly utter , but more modest enquirers might suggest : 1 st . How do you know that ? What do you know of the First Principle of things , and what of intelligence ? 2 nd . You have analogical ground for assuming the Deity to be intelligent , but none for assuming that He is Intelligence . 3 rd . Further , how can Intelligence be the First Principle of a thing ? That remains to be shown .
Upon this assumption that Intelligence is the Principle , Aim , and End of every created thing , the author bases his system . So long as he remains with the Deity and creation , he has it all his own way . No man can disprove cosmology ; for the simple reason that no man can prove it . The author , therefore , may sport as he pleases amidst the chaos of unformed worlds , and tell us " about" them . With First Principles we profess no acquaintance , and leave him undisturbed with them ; as the sailor said of ghosts , " we don't understand their tackle ; " but when he descends upon earth and speaks of human beings we begin to feel more confident .
Vice , we are constantly told , is only Ignorance , and there would be no Virtue were it not for Vice . The author is strangely mistaken in supposing this is a discovery of his own . It is as old as Socrates . Indeed we may say , in passing , that the ideas in this book , so far from being novel , will be recognized by every metaphysical reader as having fre quently been promulgated , and as having passed through his , the reader ' s , mind ; but as having passed through it—rejected as crude or false . The peculiar error to which we now direct attentionviz ., that Vice is Ignorance , and that Knowledge compels right actions—could only be entertained by one unaccustomed to scientific methods , and will afford us a good illustration of the author ' s
reasoning . Starting with the assumption that Intelligence is the great reality and first principle of things , he of course seeks in man only the intelligent man . " The real , man , " he says , in all the emphasis typography can give , " is the spiritual man , the intelligent principle . " By this grand method of elimination anything could be proved . But we abstain from parodies , and quote this passage : — " Man is not a moral being , nor is he a religious being : he is simply an intelligent or intellectual being .
" If his knowledge enahle him to comprehend his relationship to' the Deity , his Creator , a reverential feeling of pious homage is the necessary result of the conviction . Call this religion , or give this act of homage any other name , no matter : it is the necessary result of his knowledge . Without the intelligence or intellectual principle there could have been no perception , ho act , no homage , no religion : hence man is not a religious being , neither is he a moral being : he ia eimply and solely an intellectual being . "
The " hence" is a logical sequence we do not follow ; we might as cogently assert that " hence " man was simply a muscular being , because without muscles he could not move , could not live , could not think . Cannot the author read the plain language of fact , which says that man is not simply any one thing , but a very complex being , having various modes of action—vital , intellectual , and emotional ? Such plain writing ought also to
convince him of the radical mistake in Inn philosophy . For it is quite idle to say that if man really knew the whole consequences of his acts he never would act otherwise tnan rightly ; idle because the " if " is ho immense ! Those who talk in this way forget that man cannot foresee all the consequences . If he were otherwise constituted— if ho had no passions , no desires , no instincts—if he were purely and simply an intelligent being , then once give him knowledge and you give him virtue ; then Vice would be Him pie Ignorance . . . .
But who does not see the vicious reasoning which employs such an iff Men—as at present constituted—are intelligent , but they are also instinctive and emotive beings . Intelligence is one mode of action by which an organization manifests itself ; but it is only one mode , and is controlled by other modes . Instincts , Desires , Passions are not less integral portions of the human soul , and they mislead men into vicious actions , more than ignorance misleads them . No greater mistake can be committed than to place all our actions under the impulse of the intellect , and to suppose that opr knowledge of what is right will compel us to do what is right : —
" Video meliora proboque , Deteriora sequor . " " I know and testify to the good , yet I follow the In the face of this universal experience , how can a man assert that Vice is the same as Ignorance , and that we do wrong because we are unenlightened , when it is clear that , in most cases , the wrong we do is owing to our instincts and passions diregarding the intellect , and acting iff defiance of it . Take a familiar illustration . Jones is fond of port ; a pint does him no apparent injury ; a bottle makes him quarrelsome , reckless , and profligate . He knows ' weil enough that , if he drink a bottle of port , he will thump his wife , destroy the furniture ,
pass the night in a roundhouse , and suffer terrible headache on the morrow . He knows this as well as he knows most things : he foresees the consequences , and—drinks the bottle ! Now , it is quite true that our opponent might say , Jones only ^> artially foresaw the consequences—his conviction was not absolute—he suffered his desires to sophisticate with him—he listened to the sneaking suggestion that this time , perhaps , he should not become intoxicated , and so on ; whereas , if he clearly and unmistakeably saw his action in its true light—saw the inevitable consequences , and recognized them as inevitable , then he would not drink the bottle . Some such reservation as this there must : be in the minds of those who talk about Vice
being Ignorance . But are they aware of what it amounts to ? It amounts to this : Give man the omniscience of an angel , and he will act like an angel ! What are these hindrances to a perfect prevision of consequences—what are these sophisticationsthese " perhapses , " but the operation of those other faculties which man has besides reason , and which make him a man , not a mere intelligence ? " Oh , " says this school , " make him an intelligent being , and then ! " .... Make the Lion cease to be carnivorous in his instincts , and he will become a pleasant playfellow for your dogs and children !
The error , as we have already indicated , lies in eliminating from human nature all the conditions except intelligence , and theorizing as to how men would act if they were so constituted . But Nature is not to be coerced by our philosophy ; on the contrary she insists upon our philosophy taking its shape from her : and this command The Alpha violates in every chapter . In justice to the author we should add that his error is natural to a man accustomed to meditation and aware of the control exercised by reason over the passions . Personal history suggests what
universal history confirms , that greater morality accompanies encreased enlightenment ; and hence it is an easy leap to jump to the conclusion that knowledge is virtue . But the conclusion is false nevertheless . We have no space here for an essay on moral culture , but must briefly nay that the progress of morality baa been coincident with but not derived from progress of intelligence . The moral faculties have undergone a change no less than the state of intelligence . Social experience has educated social feeiinns ; the intellect has , of
course , guided this education—it has thrown its light upon the objects—hut it has not been the motive force . To do unto others as you would be done by is not more clearly apprehended by tho intellects of our day than it was by tin ; intellects of many centuries ago ; but in our day the moral law is nearer its fulfilment , not because the intellect apprehends it , but because the social sympathies acknowledge it—because our moral culture , or the education of our feelings , is such that they are enlisted in itu cause .
There arc many other points upon which we should combat The Alpha , but we have examined its fundamental positions , and they su / Iice'to allow that the revelation does not come from heaven , nor i « it likely to make many converts . But we must
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 25, 1851, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_25011851/page/13/
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