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liffht merely touchingher hand and waist , her toilet not cUfraiohie by him j see him conduct her the proper number of turns and stop every now and then , before either of them can look Ugly or disarranged from heat and lack of breath y and then see the cavalier ' s polite inclination when they are alout to start again ! So me pe rsons say the polka is > ' so ungraceful" and " such a romp" The English - —with as I before said , some bright exceptions—make it so : but then it is « aredi ' ' and " ' so easy . " Papas and mammas allow it , and tell their daughters they should not permit their partners to hold them so tight ; and the young lady ' s dresses are made-dingy by the young gentleman ' s black coat sleeve around her . Imagine a JParisienne allowing such a thing or a PaHsien being guilty of it ! But so it is here , and parents say not nay" and the sport continues ; and tfcen comes a descent for ice , in which there is " more fun" and the young lady talks nonsense , and the young gentleman draws her put to a large extent : especially if he is a good match , or very good-looking ; and that over , he hands her back to her mamma again !"
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COMTE'S POSITIVE PHILOSOPHY . By G . H . Lewes . Par * II . —^ General Considerations on the Aim and Scope of Positivism . There is one very injurious , very intelligible mistake current on the subject of the Positive Philosophy . It is supposed to be a thing of dry , severe science , only interesting to scientific men- —only presenting the scientific aspect of the world , andleaving untouched the -great world of emotion , of art , of morality , of religion ; a philosophy which may amuse the intellect of the speculative few , but can never claim the submission of the mass . The mistake is injurious , because the thinking world happens , unfortunately , to be divided into two classes- —men of science destitute of a philosophy ,
because incompetent , for the most part , to the thorough grasp of those generalities which form a philosophy j and metaphysicians , whose tendency towards generalities causes them to disdain the creeping specialities of physical science . Thus , between Science which ignores Philosophy , and Philoso phy which ignores Science , Comte is in danger of being set aside altogether . I shall endeavour to convince the reader , that the Positive Philoso phy must necessarily reconcile these discrepancies , and that while rendering due recognition to the specialities of experimentalists , it gives full scope the generalizing tendency of philosophers . Meanwhile , the moralist , the metaphysician , and the man of letters , may be assured , that if Comte ' s system has one capital distinction more remarkable than another , it is the absolute predominance of the moral point of view—the rigorous
subordination of science to morals . Speculation , as a mere display of intellectual energy , it denounces ; science , as commonly understood , it looks upon with something of the feeling which may move the moralist contemplating the routine of pin-makers . The half-repugnant feeling about science , in the minds of literary men , artists , and moralists , is a natural and proper insurgence of the' emotions against the domineering tendency of the intellect : { hey know that the moral life ia larger and more intense than the intellectual life—they know that this moral life has its needs , which no science can pretend to regulate , and they reject v a philosophy which speaks to them only of the Laboratory . But in Comte Science has no such position . It is the basis upon which the social superstructure may be raised . It gives Philosophy materials and a Method : that
If the- Positive Philosophy be anything , it is a Doctrine capable of em-> raemg all that can regulate Humanity ; not a treatise on physical science , not a treatise on social science , but , a system which absorbs all intellectual activity . « Positivism / ' he say » , in his recent work , ia essentially composed of a Philosoph y ami a Polity , which are necessarily inseparable because icy constitute the basis and aim of a system wherein intellect and sociability , . intimately connected . " And farther on , " This then is the nussion of Positivism ; to generalize science , and to systematize sociality . " * otller words , it aims at creating a Philosophy of the Science * as a basis Jpr a new social faith . A social doctrine is the aim of Positivism , a scien-0 do ° Mne the means ; just as in man , intelligence in the minister and
interpreter of life . " En effet si le cceur doit toujdurs poser les questions , e ' est toujours a l ' esprit qu'il appartient de les resoudre . ' * So much for the aim . Let me now call attention to Comte ' s initial conceptions j and first , to the luminous conception of all the * tene £ * - — physjcal and social— -as branches of one Science , to be investigated on one and the same Method . To say that Science is one , and that the Method sbould . be one , may , to the hasty reader , seem more like a truism than a discovery '; but on inquiry he will find , that before Comte , although a general idea of the connexion of the physical sciences was prevalent , yet , as may be seen in Mrs .
Somerville ' s work , or in HerschelPs Discourse , it was neither very precise , nor very profound ; nor had any one thought of a Social Science issuing from the Physical Sciences , and investigated on the same method . In fact , to talk of moral questions being reduced to a positive science will even now be generally regarded as absurd . Men use the phrase " social science , * ' " ethical science , " but they never mean thereby that ethics form one branch of the great tree , rising higher than the physical sciences , but rising from the same root . On the contrary , they interpret ethical phenomena upon metaphysical or theological methods , and believe History not to be under the governance of Laws , but under the governance of human caprice .
The second initial conception which I would ask the reader to familiarize his mind with , is that of the Fundamental Law of human development : — There are but three phases of intellectual evolution—for the individual as for the mass—the Theological , or Supernatural , the Metaphysical , and the Positive ,, I shall hereafter illustrate this law in detail , and may content myself with a very brief indication now . In the Supernatural phase the mind seeks causes ; it aspires to know the essences of things , and the how and
why of their operation - It regards all effects as the productions of supernatural agents . Unusual phenomena are interpreted as the signs of pleasure or displeasure of some God . In the Metaphysical phase , a modification takes place , the supernatural agents are set aside for abstract forces or entities supposed to inhere in various substances , and capable of engendering phenomena . In the Positive phase the mind , convinced of the futility of all inquiry into causes and essences , restricts itself to the observation and classification of phenomena , and to the discovery of the invariable relations of succession and similitude which all things bear to each other—in- a word ,
to the discovery of the laws of phenomena . The third initial conception is that beautiful classification of the sciences coordinated by the luminous principle of commencing with the study of the simplest ( most general ) phenomena , and proceeding successively to the most complex and particular ; thus arranging the sciences according to their dependence on each other . The three great conceptions just stated I can expect no one to appreciate until he has applied them . But how would he appreciate any general conception—say the law of gravitation- —if it were simply presented to him as a formula which he had not verified ? Let an honest verification of the
three formulas be made , and I have the deepest conviction that no competent mind will fail to recognise them as the grandest contributions to philosophy since Descartes and Bacon inaugurated the positive method . And now a word on the part Positivism is to play in the coming years of struggle . That a new epoch is dawning , that a new form of social life is growing up out of the ruins of feudalism , the most superficial observer cannot fail to see ; and as signs of the deep interest now agitating society , no less than as evidence of the indestructible aspiration after an Ideal which has always moved mankind , the systems of Communism so confidently promulgated , attract the attention of most thinkers . But can any system
of Communism yet devised be accepted as an efficient solution of the social problem ? I think not ; and for this reason : Communism is simply a political solution of a problem which embraces far deeper and higher questions than politics . As an Ideal I accept Communism ; but I think it the goal towards which society tends , not a path by which the goal may be reached . Neither cooperation , nor watchwords of fraternity , however s incerely translated into action , can pretend to compass the whole problem . For let us suppose the political question settled ; let us imagine a parallelogram of harmonious success—a human beehive of cooperative activity , — will all be settled then ? Will not the deep and urgent questions of
Religion and Philosophy still demand an answer ? Just where man most obviously rises above the bee , Communism leaves him to the care of Priests and Teachers , who cannot agree among themselves ; and inasmuch as all polity is founded on a system of ideas believed in common , inasmuch as you cannot in social problems isolate the political from the moral , the moral from the relig ious system , Communism leaves society to its anarchy . The present anarchy of politics arises from the anarchy of ideas . The ancient faiths are shaken where they are not sheltered . The new faith which must replace them is still to come . What Europe wants is' a Doctrine that will embrace the whole system of our conceptions , that will
satisfactorily answer the questions of Science , Life , and Religion ; teaching u » our relations to the World , to Duty , and to God . A mere glance at the present state of Europe will detect the want of unity , caused by the abpenc © of anv one Doctrine general enough to embrace the variety of questions , and positive enough to carry with it irresistible conviction . I make thin reservation , because Catholicism has the requisite generality , but fails in convincing Protestants . The existence of sects is enough to prove , if proof were needed , that none of the Religion * are competent to their mission of
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We should do our utmost to encourage the Beautiful , for the Useful encourages itself . —Gosthh .
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BOOKS ON OUR TABLE . Pauperism and Poor Laws . IBy B . Pashlen . Longman , Brown , Green , and Co-Memoirs and Resolutions of'Adam Graeme of Mossgray . 3 vote . Colburn and Go-Yankee Stories and Dashes of 'American Humour . By H . H . Paul . Piper , Brothers , and Co . The Beasoner . Part LXXII . . James Watson . The Rambler . PartXII . \ Burns and Lambert . Xhiaht ' s Pictorial Shakspere—Conolanus . Charles Knight . Curiosities of Industry and the Applied Sciences . Part VII . Charles Knight . The Comvanion of Shakspere—Facts connected with the Life and Writings of William Shake X pere . Part III . . ¦ Charles Knight . Restoration of BeUef . . ¦ . | Ia ^ nJlan and Co . Five Tears' Progress of the Slave Power . B . B . Mussey and Co . Technological , Etymological , and Pronouncing Dictionary . Vol . 1 . By John Craig . ¦ G > Routledge and Co . Narratives from Criminal Trials in Scotland , 2 Tola * By 6 k H . Barton . Chapman and Hall . Bohn'a Scientific Library- ~ -The Chess Tournament . By H . Staunton . BT . Q- . Bohn . Bohn * 8 Antiquarian Library—The Works of Sir Thomas Browne . Vol . III . By Simon "Wilkin . ¦' ;" . ' H . Gr . Bohn . Bohn's Classical Library—The Orations of Marcus TulUus Cicero . Vol . III . By C . D , Yonge . H . Or . Bonn . Bohn ' s Standard Library—^ The Literary Works qf Sir Joshua Reynolds . 2 vo 1 b . ByH . W . Beeihy . H . G . Bohn . Bohn ' s Scientific Library—^ TheSoul in Nature . By H . C . Oersted . H . & . Bohn . Mundus Ih-avriaticus . A . Satire . H . . Lacy . Tait ' s Edinburgh Magazine : Sutherland and Knox . Orammaire Francaise . Par If . A . Boche . P . Eolandi .
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. - ¦¦ ¦ . ¦ ¦ ' ¦ ; , ¦; . V . ;• ¦ ¦ .- . ¦ ¦ ¦ ' ¦ ¦ . ¦¦ ' . ¦ ' ¦ ' . ' . ¦¦ : ¦ ¦;¦ : ' ¦ ¦ . v ' ' ¦ ' . ¦ ¦ ' ¦ . ¦ .. ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ "¦ ¦ ¦ . ¦ , . Aimto 10 , 1852 . J TEE LEADER . 333
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Leader (1850-1860), April 10, 1852, page 353, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1930/page/21/
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