NEW SFRIFS.
The Western
A JOURNAL OF
|
Literature, Education and Art. |
: {
H. H. MORGAN, Evtror.
ST. LOUIS, NOVEMBER, 1876.
CONTENTS.
Papier, Dine. Thy. J BE, Teng... sccun sncsessantonave copsinces deustevsibbtete an
Ad Pogtam, By Lewis J. Block
‘The Iliad. Book I. Translated by J. A. Martti: ss seconseccses<eccnestseses
Law and Cause. By L. F. Soldan............ ercepocenpes eposeesanccecos epconses sob -
mee mney Of Lebadden, Ty Z. CG. Wikediiins....coccccccocnceesss ccesnbbssttecin as
Coriolanus, By D. J. Snider
Madam De Stael. By S. E. Cole...........ccceses
Book Reviews
Books added to Public School Library.....s....ccocseocce ssovasscveeseocess saccecsosses 728
PUBLISHED BY
WESTERN PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION,
E. F. HOBART, PrRestvEent
AS SS _ mene es
Terms: $150 per annum, invariably in advance. Single Copies, 20c,
“Prospectus of “The Wostern’
The Western Publishing Association having purchased the right to publish
“ THE WESTERN,” hope to conduct the magazine in consonance with the best
literary effort of the past.
Vol. 1, No. 1, New Series, will be issued January 1, 1875. The subscription
oe will be $1.50°per annum: payable invariably im advance; single copies can
obtained of news dealers or of the publishers at 20 cents each.
er more supplied at the yearly rate of $1.00 per volume.
All books for review, all applications for subscription or advertisement, all let-
térs of inquiry, and.all articles for insertion, should be addressed to the Editor
of “THe WesTERN,” P. O. Box 2422, St. Louis, Mo.
Manuscript will not be returned unless accompanied by a request to that effect
and sufficient postage to cover expenses ; no notice will be taken of letters not,
pertaining to the business of “‘ THE WESTERN,” unless return postage is enclosed.
THE WESTERN will aim to represent the various intellectual interests of St.
Louis, and in addition, to present in the form of original matter or through its
editorial department, the best results in all fields of intellectual effort.
H. H, Morgan, Editor and Publisher.
W. T. Harris,
D. J. Snider,
Z. G, Willson, Assistant Editors.
F. E. Cook,
B. V. B. Dixon,
Any of these gentlemen, together with E, F, Hobart, President, W. H. Rosen-
stengel, Vice President, and W. J. S. Bryan, Treasurer, are authorized to receive
subscriptions ; but all receipts must be signed by W. J, S. Bryan, Treasurer.
Authorized Agents will-be furnished by the Editor, with credentials.
Clubs of ten
TO SUBSCRIBERS.
All diligence is used in seeing that each month’s issue is mailed to the proper
address. Any failure to receive THE WESTERN will be inquired into if notice
be sent to Editor of THe Western, P. O., Box 2422. If the Journal shall have
been properly mailed, we shall not expect to be responsible for any irregularities
of the mails. THE WesTERN is furnished at rates that preclude pecuniary pro-
fit, and subscribers receive their numbers at about cost prices.. Sample copies
will be sent only upon remittance of the price for a single copy (¢wenty cents.)
Back numbers will be supplied at the same rates until the close of a volume,
after which the price w Il be raised one-third.
TO ADVERTISERS.
THE WESTERN circulates several theusard copies, and from the character of
its readers, offers peculiar advantages for certain classes of advertisements. The
attention of Schools, Universities, First-Class Publishing Houses, are specially
invited to this notice. All advertisements intended to reach the more cultivated
portion of the community as well as such are addressed to travelers, will find a
suitable audi: nce as the circulation of ‘THE WESTERN is confined to no part of
the country, and everywhere the Journal finds its audience among those most
likely to read advertisements which address themselves to an audience such as
above named, Our rates of advertisement are as low as those offered by any re-
putable journal, and we engage to see any obligations on our part properly dis-
@harged.
Contents of January Number.
Art-Criticism, = - - is: it H. H. Morgan.
Cupid and Psyche, a Poem, 9 - - FF. EB. Cook.
The oe”; - - W. T. Harris.
The Relation of Physical ‘Science to Human Life, B. V. B. Dixon.
Shakespeare’s Tragedies; Romeo and Juliet, - D. J. Snider.
Editorial Department.
Contents of February Number
Sbakespeare’s Romeo and pe, - - D. J. Snider.
Tantalus—a poem, - - . : Lewis J. Block,
The Theatre in Blackfriars, - - Grace C. Bibb.
On the Relation of the Will to the Intellect, &e - Wm.T. Harris.
Ancient and Modern Ethics, - - - - Z. G. Wilson.
Editorial Department.
Ciniinssites of “March Number,
Shakespeare’s King Lear, — - - D. J. Snider.
Stella—a poem, - - - - - - F. E. Cook.
J.J. Rousseau, - - - - S. E. Cole.
Dante, - - - - - - - L. F. Soldan.
Editoria! Department.
Contents of April Number
The Necessity for the Specialist, and the nature of his Comple-
mentary Education, : H. H. Morgan.
The Quest--a poem, - : - - Lewis J. Block.
Thoughts on the Music of Desther en, - - Wm. T. Harris,
The Lincoln Monument at Springfield, - Thomas Davidson.
Shakespeare’s Tr aici tiais Lear, - . D. J. Snider.
Dante, : - - L. F.
Soldan,
Kditorial _— spartment.
Contents of May Number.
Shakespeare’s Tragedies—King Lear, : - D. J. Snider.
Why the Sea Compenaes a - Simeon Tucker Clark.
Sonnet, - - - - Lewis J. Block.
Lady Macbeth—a study in character, - - Grace C. Bibb.
Thought on Pessimism and Educational Reforms, W. T. Harris.
Paris in America, - : : - : : : S. E. Cole.
Kditoria! Depariment.
Contents of June Number.
Shakespeare’s Tragedies—Timon of Athens. D. J. Snider,
Song of the Spirits over the Waters, - J.C. Pickard,
The Two Hawthornes, - - Eliz: ahi . P. Peabody.
The Human E ar, its Anatomy iad Function, Chas. A. Todd, M. D.
On Beethoven’s Sixth Symp hony, - . Wn. y Harrie,
Editorial De partment
Contents of July Number.
Culture and engron, . - : Wm. M. Bryant.
Sennet, - - . Lewis J. Block.
The Unknown Dead, . : . Levi Bishop.
Shakesp eare’s Tras sas, a he flo, . - D. J. Snider.
The Fair God—A Critique, - - , - F. E. Cook.
Our World >; or, Fist Lessons in Geography, is E. Kimball.
Editorial Depart ment.
Contents of August Number.
Shakespeare's Tragedies—Othello - . D.J. Snider.
The Royal Questioner, : . - - Lewis J. Block.
Agricola Omnipotens, - - Dan. E, Pierson,
Literary Criticism : Its Past, p resentand Future, H.H. Morgan.
The University Club, - . . - James S. Garland.
Xditorial Department.
Contents of September Number.
Mind included in the Sy athesla of L ife, ; - J. M. Long,
Morning, - : . : ° Simeon Tucker Clark,
Actaeon, - - - : ° Lewis J. Block.
Shakespeare's Trage _— s—Macheth, . - D. J. Snider.
Course of Re rading, - - . : - Wm. T. Harris.
Editorial Department.
Contents of October Number.
Shake sspeare’s Tragedies— Macbe th, : . D. J. Snider.
Pygmalion, - . . - : : Lewis J. Block
The Iliad, - - - - . - Jj. A. Martling.
Suleika, . L. F. Soldan.
The iniitieeas De shan 7” the Age—Know!
edge of Mankind or History, . - Z. G. Wilson.
Oriental Philosophy and the Bhagavad Gita, - Wm. T. Harris.
Editorial Department.
Th a saraceinsiiimasti
lt soins ee SoA tase Lent
“NO leas She NMED,
4
femes +> Ee srt
Se NE cls th nal
wade wont 4
The Advertiser.
Kiddle wnaSchem’s
Cyclopedia of Education
AWARDED TO E. STEIGER will be publi, Jie / },; E. Ste ige r,
FOR EXCEI NCE OF s
Educational Fut ations.
Particnlar att tion ¢ nvited to Ahn-Henn’s German Seri Ahn-Henn’s French
Beri+s, and Reffelt's German Readers, t Ad
t r ertensire o n (witl the : ¢ jn ‘
y I auike Chica Cle wid, Da fart I
cities—a so to Douai’s Rutional Re adders, Retiel(s Ariihmrt é Au
Relic? Mapes, at to Kindergarten Literature and Kind ’ ‘
German Books @ specialty. Large sto« » har Cat t free
Bo Avents in the field E. Steiger, 22 & 24 Frankfort S New Yor«
j per day errs
tn OD eats
§ 4 & Co., Portland, Me. 3-ly
BART'S MEW SCHOOL MOTTOLS.
These-Mottoes are handsomely Printed on Card Board (assorted
colors), 40 inaset. Size '7'4x14 inches. Price, per svt, $1.
Be Diligent
2 Conquer your Difficulties,
3. Dare to do Right.
4. Haste not, Rest not.
5. Do | Help or Hinder’
6. Step by Step.
7: Fost Opportunities Never Return.
8. Study to be Usefal.
i] Redeem the lime.
10. Always be Prompt.
ll. Truth is Mighty.
12. A Time to Work.
13. Good Deeds Never Die.
14. Merit your Honors,
15. We obey Orders.
16. Aim at a Sure End.
17. Swift to Hear, Slow to Speak.
18. Fighting against Wrong, and for the Good, the Lrue,
and the Beautiful.
19 lrifles make Perfection.
20. Present Labor is Future Delight.
Address E. F. HOBART & CO.
Saint Louis.
The Advertiser.
Si Rapti uses Poel by Bahart
HOBART’S HELPS TO SCHOOL MANAGEMENT,
SERIES 1
Each box contains 500 checks of one credit, 125 tickets of five credits, 75 tickets of twenty-
five credits, 20 elegant reward cards, and 5 beautiful chromos. Price of set complete $1 se
SERIES 2.
Contains the same one credi§, five credit and twenty-five credit tickets as the above, and 40
fine chromos of Landscapes, Figures and Flowers, mounted on card board, 4x53¢ in-
ches, the reverse of cach chromo bearing a certificate for 100 credits. Price of set... $2 50
SERIES 3.
Contains the same credit tickets as series 1 and 2, and 40 chromos of Landscapes, Fi 1
and Flowers, with Certificate of Fifty Credits, and also 12 large Chromos of
scapes, mounted on card board 9x11 inches, with Certificate of One Hundred Crediee,
eR eis. Loan as. ess os GEN RH BAAN ES Comb ets devenceuchereees deneed $s 00
Additional Checks of one credit, ows ee Sevecaresecsesecs on s'ceeeeeenenscégeucs 10
Tickets of five credits, per 100 pubeses <teasnansels Meade pen bateGnasinn mee eunekes a5
Tickets of twenty- five a OO ere 73
Chromos, 4x54; inches, with 100 credit certificate, per. dozen 50
Chromos, same size, with so “ © se
HOBART S KEWARD CARD».
Reward Cards, in colors : | Reward Cards, in colors with embossed
TE. Sig EE MRK no ons occ cggececs — ornaments :
No, 2, per package............ 1 BUS GSESS 10 | No. 5, per package....... ahntnetickoiaen 15
Si; Mp ID es dacdocceasctennsas 10 | No.6, " iteataatepeecbweuans 15
Sr +s t23¢| No. 7, . . \ettieladiae tunbibbirasin 5
Gold Reward Cards, printed | in gold, and embellished with fine chromo vignettes,
10 cards in a package :
No. 9, (futterflies) per package ....... 15] No. 17, (Landscapes) per package eens 25
No. 10, ((upids) a pheeee ee 20 | No. “ (Children) canerbee zo
No. 11, (Birds) oS | aunteaee 20 | No , (Children 4 ee oe 40
No. 12, (Flowers) My adele 20 fo. a 22, ( )riental Birds) ‘* dees 40
No. 15, (Children) we -gkeseuss 25 | No. 23, (Landscapes) 40
No. 16, (Flowers) ai eeeeeess 25 | No. 24, (The Lord’s Pray a per ‘pekge. 75
LARGE CHROMO REWARDS, MOUNTED ON CARD BOARD, 4x5! 4 INCHES.
No, 25, (Landscapes) per doz.... . 50 | No. a9, (Figures in Costume) ® doz 50
No. 26, (Figures) ee . §0 | No. 30, (Fairies and Flowers) ‘‘ .. 50
No. 27, (Birds) e6 ee soe SO] No. 31, (Guardian Angeis) 3. 6
No. 28, (Flowers) vty 50 | No. 32, (F igures, half lengths) ‘* .. 50
No. 36, Landscapes, Flowers, etc, mounted on cardboard 5!,x7 inches per doz....... ..$1 oo
No. 38, Animals, Flowers, &c., on board, 7x9 inches per doz ... 2 00
io. 40, Large Chromos, mounted on heavy card board, 9x11 inc hes, including Fine Land-
scapes and other subjects, DPE cai<ss avagssos. | oe cakbesnesupeee Secceeds $3 oo
Teacher’ s Daily Register, GBB Be cc ccocccvccevecsocesoscces 4 00
RD Dec cncecccscadcseesccese 2 00
- bs = SS eee 1 00
Teacher’s Class " PR. ccceh vvpnesesene 7
Ma SME, «> <cnapecns onc taeteteetes consies dnb hepenedseandedendente 3°
District } - ‘ asee sciatic rR Bee 4 09
District Order Book on Teacher’s Fund sv ceeteversébaes sesvens swsbauee OOO
District Or:ier Book on Incidental and Building Funds. . nvensabtabenades I co
Package of er >t Blanks con OO
Monthly Reports, No 1,¢A) wi th printed list of Common School studies, per 100... .. 50
Monthly Reports, ,N >». t, (B) same studies, also Algebra and P’ hysiology USS Pe em 50
Month!y Reports, No 1, (c) with lars er number o f stuches. 5
Mont Keports, No. 3, w th one line only for Scholarship. . 5
Mont Reports, No. 4, old form, with full list of studies
Sch Lb ary, per doz TOV eT TT Tey Ye Ter neve
School Mottoes, 20 in set, per set ereeseceress Oneeeeee
Illinois Monthly Schedule, per quire. .... 2 ceccecceccce PA PPTTTITITITITT TT TTT TTT TTT Te 75
illinois Quarterly Schedule, ith quire I 25
a ren. 27. ae, (oh eee shaknsee depincdoccsedessedneseboqatenetosie 50
Teachers’ Institute Certificates, per BOD cndccdiunedoccdeacebeceves PPTTTTTT ITT Tite 2 00
Sent by mail, prepaid, on receipt of price.
B F. HOBART & CO. 615 Chestnut Street, S$. Louis,
The Western.
NOVEMBER, 1878.
MIND AND MATTER.
When we ask what is mind and what is matter, we
ask the two great questions on which hang all: science
and philosophy. It is impossible to give a logical de-
finition of these two mysterious entities; but we may
describe matter as that which manifests itself to our
senses, and which therefore occupies space, while we
may describe mind as that which manifests itself to con-
sciousness, and which therefore exists in time. The
sensible forms, forces and properties of things around
us we denominate the phenomena of matter. The sen-
sations, thought, emotions and volitions which take
place within us we denominate the phenomena of mind.
Hence, the most complete antithetical ideas we have
are those of mind and matter. We conceive of mat-
ter as existing under spatial relations, mind under time-
relations. All science and philosophy have had their
origin in the reciprocal action of those two entities, and
the effort growing out of this action to make thought
harmonize with its object.
With regard to the relation of mind and matter, it
is possible to lay down and maintain any of the four
following propositions; viz. :
40
666 lhe Western.
ist. Mind is a function of matter. This is what
goes by the name of Materialism.
and. Matter is a function of mind. This is Ideal-
ism,
grd. Matter and mind are both phenomena be-
longing to an unknown substance which as a kind of
double-faced unity manifests two different sets of prop-
erties. This is absolute Idealism.
4th. Mind and matter are two separate substances
temporarily united in man. This is what is known as
Dualism.
All of those propositions have had their advocates
during the different stages of speculative philosophy.
They have, in fact, engaged the thought of the world’s
greatest thinkers. Man as a thinking being must have
some theory or philosophy of the universe. Philoso-
phy is defined by Hamilton as ‘‘the science of first
principles, that, namely, which investigates the primary
grounds and determines the fundamental certainty, of
human knowledge generally.” Is thought a mere wak-
ing dream, and is the world around usa shadowy fiction,
and empty phantasm, made up of dissolving views
which, for a moment, flit before us and are then lost for-
ever in nothingness? Or is there a permanent reality
which amid the perpetual flux and reflux of the phen-
omenal remains unchangeable and enduring? If this
reality exists, is it all pure matter or all pure mind ; or
is it some unknown entity lying beyond the sphere of
sensible experience, while what we call mind and matter
are only phenomenal manifestations of it? These
questions mark off the boundaries of a battle-field
where the armies of materialism, idealism, nihilism and
dualism have each, in turn, contended for the mastery,
Mind and Matter. 667
and where are strewed in bewildering confusion the bro-
ken and mangled systems of philosophy, the impotent
efforts of man to construct a theory of the universe.
The effort to solve those hard questions began with the
birth of philosophy, and their final solution, if it shall
ever be given to man to struggle up “‘to the height of
this great argument,” will bring harmony to thought
through an all-embracing truth in which the wearied
spirit may find a lasting repose.
In the first place, there have not been wanting those
who, while admitting the reality of one of those enti-
ties, have denied the existence of the other. One class
of philosophers, known as materialists, have contended
that all substance and reality are embraced in what we
call matter. The most eminent type of this class of
_ philosophers was Dr. Priestly with whom spiritual
phenomena were only an etherealized and sublimated
matter. The great argument of the materialist is
based on the intimate union of mind and mat-
ter. It is said that we know nothing of mind save
as manifested through a material organism, and that,
for aught we know, all those phenomena which we char-
acterize as mental may, after all, be the properties of
matter, all the possibilities of which we cannot claim to
know ; and that hence it is unscientific to postulate an
unknown cause to account for any class of phenomena
until we have ascertained all the possibilities of known
causes. This argument cannot be refuted by denying
the intimate union which in our present mode of being
subsists between mind and matter; but may be shown
to have no logical force inasmuch as its strength lies in
the assumption that we have a knowledge of matter
which we do not possess of mind. This we shall show
in the sequel is false.
668 The Western.
Again, the attempt has been made to solve the mys-
tery of mind and matter by resolving all substance and
reality into subjective phenomena. This view known
as Idealism is the flower and fruit of German philoso-
phy. The strong position taken by the English phil-
osopher Locke against the doctrine of innate ideas
re-acted in the German philosopher Kant, who has fur-
nished the great impulse to metaphysical thought in
modern times among his countrymen. He proved
that in all our ideas there is both an apriori and an apos-
teriori element; that is, an element furnished by the
mind and an element furnished by the object. This
fundamental position of Kant according to which the
phenomena of the external world have impressed upon
them the qualities of the mind, or subjective world,
opened the door for Idealism. Fichte taking up this
principle developed it into a system which denies the
reality of the external world. ‘‘If,” said he, ‘‘I cannot
know what things are, in themselves, I am like-wise in-
capable of knowing whether things are, in themselves ;
to me things exist only in consciousness, and though the
ideas we have of things force themselves on us irresist-
ibly, it does not follow in the least that those ideas or-
iginate from without us.”* Thus the mind in contem-
plating the phenomena of matter is only amusing itself
with shadows, since all reality is evolved out of its
own energies. The most eminent type of idealists
among English philosophers was Berkeley who main-
tained that ideas only are the direct object of knowl-
edge. While denying the existence of the substance of
matter, he admitted the existence of its properties, but
*Jour. Spec. Phil., vol, IX., No. 1, p. 39.
Mind and Matter. 669
maintained that their nature and origin is purely sub-
jective. With Berkeley Idealism was no idle fancy ; it
was an earnest effort put forth by a giant mind for the
purposes of staying the tide of materialism which had
begun to flow from the sensational philosophy of
Locke. The materialists argued that there is nothing
but matter, because the sum total of our knowledge is
derived from the external things around us. Berke-
ley replied that what we call a knowledge of mat-
ter is really the ‘sensations and ideas which exist
within the mind. In this great controversy Idealism
triumphed over Materialism so completely that Huxley
whose soul is enveloped in matter, in referring to this
says: “‘I conceive that this reasoning is irrefragable.
And if therefore I were obliged to choose between ab-
solute materialism and absolute idealism, I should feel
compelled to accept the latter alternative.”
We have another class of philosophers who have de-
nied all permanent reality to both mind and matter, to
both the subjective world and the objective world.
This theory is known as absolute Idealism, the found-
ers of which were the two German philosophers Schel!-
ing and Hegel. According to this system it is main-
tained that neither the object nor the subject is anything ;
and that the only reality is the re/ation which exists be-
tween these, or a perpetual decoming which ever rises
from intermediate stages to be absorbed in the Abso-
lute. Idealism in Germany has borne its fruit in the
form of Pantheism ; in England in the form of Skep-
ticism. Hume adopting the logic of Berkeley, applied
the same reasoning to mind which the latter had applied
to matter, and urged that we can know nothing of either
mind or matter save the ideas we experience, thus re-
solving all knowledge into a collection of ideas.
6350 The Western.
We have a fourth class of philosophers who admit
the reality of both mind and matter. We have incon-
scious union the material and the immaterial, the ex-
tended and the non-extended, which having nothing in
common, are therefore the complete antithesis of each
other. The problem which here confronts philosophy
is not the substance or absolute nature of either mind
or matter, for these it is admitted lie beyond the sphere
of human reason, but their mode of union. We can
figure in thought only a union between two things by
means of a connecting medium. But who is able to
find amid all the realms of human thought this con-
necting medium? Yet the restless spirit of man has
essayed to cross this chasm. This effort to explain per-
ception by finding some element which can be assimi-
lated to both mind and matter arises out of the
impossibility of conceiving how something can act
where it is not, or how two things, like mind and mat-
ter, which are not in any degree homogeneous can sus-
tain any relation whatever to each other, or exert upon
each other any reciprocal influence. ‘‘A strange thing
is this!” says Cousin. ‘‘A being perceives or knows
out of hisown sphere. He is nothing but himself, and
yet he knows something that is not himself. His own
existence is, for himself, nothing but his individuality ;
and, yet from the bosom of this individual world which
he inhabits, and which he constitutes, he attains to a
world foreign to his own.”” Yet this mystery of the re-
ciprocity of mind and matter finds its analogue in na-
ture. We are confronted with the impossibility of
conceiving how mind which cannot be figured in thought
under spatial relations can either act upon, or be influ-
enced by matter which exists in space. But it may also
Mind and Matter. 671
be asked how two distant bodies can attract each other
through an absolutely void space? , After the law of
gravitation was established by Newton, scientific men
set about to explain this mystery by supposing impon-
derable units, which form a connection between the two
distant bodies, and these were deemed necessary because
of the impossibility of conceiving how naked abstract
forcecan act through an absolutely void space. But
this attempt to explain perception on the hypothesis of
a connecting medium only shifts the difficulty without
removing it. If westart from the subjective or spirit-
ual side of being and attempt by some kind of an im-
material essence to unite the other term of the relation,
we find that the objective has vanished from thought,
and that we are landed in the shadowy regions of ideal-
ism. On the other hand, if we start from the objective
or material side, and attempt to cross the chasm by a
connecting material medium, be it ever so subtle, we
find that the subjective or spiritual has vanished from
thought, and that we are landed in the cold regions of
materialism. The various systems of philosophy which
recognize the reality of both mind and matter placed
in sharp contrast to each other are known as Dualism.
Dualism may have either a materialistic or idealistic
tendency according to the theory of perception which is
entertained.
When early Greek philosophy first turned its atten-
tion to the soul, it was not able to rise to the idea of
an immaterial ‘spiritual essence. Democritus taught
that the soul consists of globular atoms of fire, and
that thought is derived from impressions on the senses
by images that emanate from external objects. Plato
supposed the medium between mind and matter to be
672 The Western.
ideas as the preéxisting archetypes of things which the
soul calls up as remiscences of a former state of being.
The Platonic philosophy was idealistic. Aristotle sup-
posed that mind is brought into union with the world
of sense by means of immaterial species or forms which
are copies of material objects. Aristotelianism was
objective in its tendeney. The Epicureans made the
media between mind and matter to consist of material
effiuxes, simulacra rerum, which, like films flying off from
objects, and diffusing themselves through space, are
propagated to the perceptive organs.
Coming down to modern times, we find Descartes for
the first time drawing a sharply defined line between
mind and matter in respect to both essence and pheno-
mena. In this great philosopher it has been truly said
that mankind first came to a consciousness of itself.
He occupies the same position in the world of mind as
Bacon in the world of matter. As Bacon taught the
true method of studying the external world by induc-
tion, so Descartes taught the true method of studying
the subjective world by the process of introspection.
The former furnished the original impulse which has
resulted in modern science ; the latter gave the impulse
which has resulted in modern metaphysics. Descartes
taught that there can be no direct influence mutually ex-
erted upon each other by mindand matter. To account
for perception he had recourse to the creative power of
God as a kind of deus ex machina, which serves as the
copula between spirit and matter. This view requires
the intervention of the miraculous and supernatural to
account for the union of mind and matter. An impor-
tant successor of Descartes was Spinoza, who reduced
God, the soul and matter to one original substance, the
Mind and Matter. 673
ground of all things, whose attributes as known to us
are thought and extension. Liebnitz contended that the
soul cannot work upon the body, and that ‘‘the relation
between them is due to a preéstablished harmony, God
having so constituted them in the beginning that they
operate in perfect concord though independently.”
Hamilton, the great English philosopher, following
Kant, makes all knowledge to arise out of what he
terms the ‘‘Law of the Conditioned.” An external
world must exist, because we cannot think its opposite ;
yet this knowledge of the Objective is only phenomen-
al, and is valuable to us because it is regulative and
practical.
The problem of the reciprocal action of mind and
matter assumed a new phase in the hands of Hartley.
According to this philosopher motion in the form ot
vibrations is the connecting principle which unites the
perceiving mind to the perceived object. But the mo-
tion to which mind is thus assimilated is not the sen-
sible motion of moving masses, but the insensible un-
dulations of a subtle ether, inconceivably refined, and
moving with a velocity inconceivably great. Aftet the
discovery of electricity the students of mind turned
their attention to the stimuli or influence which is sup-
posed to be transmitted along the nerve-fibers as the
condition of mental action, with the view of ascertain-
ing whether or not this brain current could be identi-
fied with electrical currents. But to identify those two
influences seems a hopeless task. It has been ascer-
tained that the velocity of nerve-currents is about nine-
ty feet per second, while that of electricity is 280,000
miles per second. Hence, as remarked by Prof. Tyn-
dall, ‘“‘the speed with which messages fly to and fro
674 The Western.
along the nerves are found to be, not as was previously
supposed, equal to that of light or electricity, but less
than the speed of a flying eagle.”
In this connection may be mentioned the recent
theory which attempts to correlate nerve-force with the
other molecular forces, light, heat, chemical change and
electricity. Between the last three forms of force and
mechanical momentum there has been found to exist a
definite commutation or exchange; a fixed amount of
one kind, if allowed to change its form, always reap-
pearing in an equivalent amount of another kind. Un-
der this comprehensive law known as the Correlation of
Force Science now not only aims to bring vital force
which builds up animal and vegetable organisms, but
also nerve and psychical force which builds up the men-
tal organism. Psychical or nerve-force is supposed to
be generated through a definite exchange with the other
molecular forces, and is regarded as the crowning link
in the chain of correlated forces. ‘‘Light,” it is said,
“fexcites nerve-force, and the transmutation of this
nerve-force excites the activity of that part of the brain
which is the instrument of our visual consciousness.”
We would remark on this theory of mind and matter
that we can conceive of the different forms of molecular
force passing back and forth into each ¢ther, for we still
have the same homogeneous and all-pervading ether
through which this force is supposed to be propagated.
But when we attempt to pass from nerve-force to psy-
chical force or thought, we must leave behind our mole-
cules and ether, for we are now in the region of pure
spirit whose phenomena are the complete antithesis of
all material substance, however subtle and refined. The
transmission of vibrations through a material medium
Mind and Matter. 675
“‘to an immaterial substance, is a transition to a differ-
ently constituted world,” to a sphere in no respect ho-
mogenous to the outer sphere of being. A ray of light
falling on the optic rerve may excite a force or change
which is propagated to the brain; but it is still a mate-
rial force transmitted by means of nerve-cells and fibers ;
and it is utterly beyond any power which we profess to
conceive how this force can be united with the process
of thought. In fact throughout this wondrous circuit
‘from molar motion, molecular nerve-motion, and back
again to molar motion, there is no question of mind
whatever. The metamorphosis is always from one
species of material motion into some other species of
material motion, but never from a species of material
motion into an idea or feeling. The dynamic circuit is
absolutely complete without taking psychical manifesta-
tions into the account at all.”* We know that mental
_ Phenomena take place through a complex physical or-
ganism which with its wonderful adaptations and nice
adjustments serves as the medium through which mind
holds intercourse with the external material world.
When our investigations concerning the mechanism of
this material structure and the method of its working
are pushed to their farthest limits, we find a nervous
apparatus which acts in the double capacity of convey-
ing stimuli to the brain, and of returning the same in
the form of muscular action, and that between these
two nerve-discharges a conscious mental state has been
awakened. Concerning the nature of nerve-action some-
thing is known; but much yet remains to be known.
But however much on this point may in the future be
*Fiske’s Cas. Phil. vol. 11, p. 441.
676 The Western.
known, we will never be able to explain how conscious-
ness becomes mixed up with the action of material or-
gans. On this point it has been truly stated in a very
thoughtful essay recently published by Mr. E. D. Cope
that ‘‘it will doubtless become possible to exhibit a par-
allel scale of relations between stimuli on the one hand,
and the degree of consciousness on the other. Yet for
all this it will be impossible to express self-knowledge
in terms of force.”
We thus stand face to face with two incomprehensi-
bles, mind and matter; and if we consider their mode of
union, we have a third incomprehensible, all of which
are enveloped in mysteries which human reason cannot
solve. The effort to resolve those two entities into
one substance, logically leads to either absolute idealism
or absolute materialism. When the ego says there is
nothing external to itself, the very denial of externality
implies the existence in the mind of such an idea. In
like manner, when one denies the existence of the ego,
affirming that there is nothing but matter, he stultifies
himself in the very act of denial, for the reason that a
perception of externality implies the existence of a per-
ceiving conscious agent, which we characterize as mind.
The changes and relations in the subjective world are
correlated to certain changes and relations in the objec-
tive world. Those correlated phenomena, the material
and the immaterial, are bound together in thought by
the Law of Relativity which conditions all knowledge.
““Whatever we can conceive,” says Prof. Bain, ‘implies
some other thing or things, also conceivable, the con-
trast, corelative, or negation of this.” Our knowledge
comes to us twofold,—comes to us as a perception of
things which exist in either contrast or similarity to
Mind and Matter. 677
other things. It is by this law of Relativity that we
know mind and matter in contrast with each other. If
we ask what is matter, we are referred to mind for an
answer; yet all we obtain here are certain mental states
which refer us back to matter itself for their meaning
and explanation. On the other hand, if we ask what is
mind, we are referred to matter for an answer; yet all
we get here are certain qualities which as symbols find
their meaning and explanation in mind. If we ask what
is extension which is regarded as the primary quality of
matter, this question refers us at once to mind for an
answer. We find that the idea of extension is obtained
through the conscious feeling of resistence conveyed to ,
the mind by means of the tactual sense. We predicate
power or force of matter in motion. Yet when we come
to analyze this idea of power, we find that it is prima-
rily excited in the mind through the exercise of the
muscular sense, and consists in the conscious feeling of
personal effort and volition. Thus extension, power and
force, being in the first place terms indicative of changes
in our own bodily organism, are so extended in their
application as to signify properties which belong to all
matter. The primitive races of mankind whose minds
were in the earliest stage of development of necessity
attributed conscious life to all moving objects, because
they knew nothing of power and motion save as ideas
of these were obtained through their own self-conscious
activity.
With regard to what is known as the dynamical pro-
perties of matter, such as color, sound, odor, head and
taste, mental philosophers are agreed that these terms
express pure mental states, which though correlated with’
certain activities and forces in matter, cannot, in the
678 The Western.
nature of the case, bear any resemblance to them.
Thus out of the depths of consciousness are evolved
the symbols through which we express the properties of
matter.
Again, if we consider the phenomena of mind, we
find ourselves compelled to use terms which were orig-
inally applied to matter. Prof. Porter says, “The
words perceive, understand, imagine, disgust, disturb, ad-
here, and a multitude besides, were all originally ap-
plied to some material act or event. It is only by a
secondary or transferred signification that they stand
for the states or acts of the soul.” Thus we are com-
pelled to express matter in terms of mind, and mind in
‘terms of matter. Hence, we can know the phenomena
of mind only as these are expressed in symbols of mat-
ter, because we cannot conceive of pure abstract spirit-
ual existence dissociated from materiality. Likewise,
we know matter only by its power to produce changes
in our consciousness. To conceive of inert matter, or
disembodied force, is as impossibile as to conceive of
disembodied spirit.
We have thus before us the latest results of modern
science with regard to the nature of mind and matter,
and the relation which these sustain to each other.
Science can tell us nothing with regard to the substance
of either mind or matter. She can deal only with their
phenomena, the sensible forces of matter and the
changes of consciousness; and even these can be ex-
pressed in thought only through the formulas which
they mutually furnish. When therefore the material-
ist undertakes to prove that there is nothing but matter
because we know matter but do not know mind, his
whole argument rests on a premise which crumbles to
Mind and Matter. 679
dust at the first touch of modern science. True, we
cannot know mind as we know matter through its sen-
sible manifestations, but we have, if possible, a surer
witness in the testimony of consciousness. Science
furnishes no evidence that either mind or matter will
ever bedestroyed. Its indications point the other way.
It has proved by the discovery of the correlation of
force that force itself is never lost or destroyed, but
only changed from one form to another. But if force
is thus shown to be indestructible, it is fair- to conclude
that matter which serves as the vehicle of force is also
indestructible. We have in both mind and matter a
dynamical and statical element. The dynamical elements
are the phenomena of mind and matter, while the stat-
ical elements are the unknown, unknowable and inde-
structible substances which ever retreat behind all our
symbols.
With regard to the tendencies of modern science,
there may be here and there eddies on the surface which
seem to be setting in towards materialism, but a closer
examination shows that the under-current which is carry-
ing with it the destinies of the world, is flowing onward
in a deep and mighty tide toward spiritualism. The old
heathen idea of matter which represented it as an inert,
sluggish and inactive mass has given way to the mod-
ern scientific view which conceives it as composed of
molecules which are supposed to be inconceivably
small, and which as points of force are in a state of
intense activity. The divine, Dr. McCosh, therefore
says, “I give up the idea of matter being passive. *
* * * JT admit freely that matter is not that inert
substance which it has often been represented as being.
Matter has essential activities ; its atoms and worlds are
680 The Western.
in a state of constant motion.” Such a view of mat-
ter must tend to lift the mind up into the region of the
spiritual. We can with the present advanced stage of
science view the union of mind and matter with less
tendency than formerly to materialistic conceptions,
owing to the fact that physical science now dwells more
on force than on matter, and on the relations of mind
and force which are coming to be recognized. The
material universe is an expression of the ideas of God.
Matter is therefore spiritual in its origin as well as
mind. ‘‘We now see through a glass darkly,” but
when we shall emerge out of the murky atmosphere of
time, and stand forth in the clear light of eternity, all
mysteries of mind and matter shall be solved, and the
wearied spirit which has wrestled with the doubts and
difficulties of mortality shall find a sweet and lasting
repose in the fullness of immortality.
J. M. Lone.
Ad Poetam.
AD POETAM.
What dost thou seek in the night’s deep mystery,
Dreamer of dreams, and singer of songs ?
Ah, dost thou deem the world’s sad history
Shall cease from its lenghtening record of sorrow,
Shall put from itself its grave garment of wrongs,
Shall bask in the light of the sun-mastered morrow,
Because thy keen music disseveres the air,
And all the four winds thy sweet messages bear ?
Ah, thou dost say the songs which have gladdened thee
Sprang from thy heart like young birds from their nest,
Stilled with their murmurs the woes which have saddened thee
Rescued thy soul from thy passion’s sharp peril,
Hushed into calm thy tumultous breast ;
And shall the sweet realm of thy singing prove sterile
Now thou hast built round the listening heart
A land in whose seasons no winter has part ?
Yea, it is well, O compassionate singer of songs,
Yea, it is well, O thou dreamer of dreams ;
What though the day, though the night, be; the bringer of wrongs,
Art not thou sovereign of mystical regions,
Art not thou sovereign of the land which gleams
With the light of pure Hope’s innumerous legions ?
Wherefore lead, oh, lead us, to thy realm which is
Peace, and clear summit of all ecstacies.
Lewis J. BLocx
The Western.
THE ILIAD.
BOOK I,
When he thus had spoken he sat : and arose in their presence
Widely governing Agamemnon Atreides, the Hero,
Frowning, and with his clouded spirit completely with passion
Brimming full ; and his eyes did appear like torches conflagrant.
Eying Calchas portentously first, he addressed him in this wise;
“ Prophet of evil! for me thou never hast spoken a good thing!
Ever it is the delight of thy heart to prophesy evil.
Never a fortunate syllable didst thou speak or accomplish.
Even now to the Danaens prophesying, thou sayest
That for this, Far Darten is sending misfortunes upon us—
This,—that I for the maiden, Chryséis, magnificent ransom
Was not willing to take;—because I greatly desire her
With me athome! Ah! more than Clytemnesra I prize her—
More than the bride of my youth; to whom she is not the inferior,
Either in form or in features, either in wit or in action !
Nevertheless, I will give her up, if that is the best thing.
I prefer that the people be rather delivered, than perish.
Yet my guerdon prepare me at once, that not the alone one
I of the Grecians unguerdoned should be ; forthat were unseemly.
Sithence you witness all, now elsewhere goeth my guerdon.”
Then to him responded the godlike Achilles, the Swift Foot :
«¢O most famous Atreides! thou most greedy of all men!
How shall the generous hearted Achaians give thee a guerdon ?
Neither know we aught of abundant reserves in possession.
Nay, the stores of the cities we pillaged—they were divided ;
Nor is it likely the people will cull them and bring them together.
But to the god send thou the damsel : then the Achaians
Tripple and quadruple the will return, should Jupiter ever
Give the city, the thoroughly fortified Troy, to be pillaged.”
And in answer to him, said Agamemnon the Mighty :
“ Never in such wise, brave as thou art, thou godlike Achilles,
Cheat in thy thought : thou neither can’st circumvent nor convince me.
Or, while you your allotment retained, do you think that I idly
Lacking would sit ? yet thoudost command me to give up the lady.
Well! if the generous hearted Grecians should grant me a guerdon
Suiting it to my wish, that it be of equivalent value ;
But if they will not give it, then of myself will I seize it,
The liad.
Either thine own, or the portion of Ajax, or of Ulysses.
Taking, I hold: and let him, whoever I visit resent it!
Let us, however, deliberate over these matiers hereafter.
Come, now, launch we a dark ship on the mysterious*ocean,
Man it with rowers sufficient, and in it a hundred of oxen
Place we; and the maiden, Chryséis the Beautiful Featured,
Carry we; and some gentleman counselor be the commander;
Be it or Ajax, or Idomeneus, or celestial Ulysses ;
Be it thyself, Pelides, most terrific of all men,
That Far Worker to us may be kind, thou making atonement. ”’
Him regarding angrily, spake Achilles, the Swift Foot :
* O thou mailed in effrontery, and thou greedy of lucre !
Who of the Greeks can yield to thine orders in cheerful obedience,
Either to follow in march, or bravely to battle with warriors ?
For, for myself, on account of the Trojan spearmen I came not
Hither to fight, since I have no occasion of quarrel.
For they have never stolen either my oxen or horses ;
Neither ever in richly alluvial populous Phthia,
Have they wasted my grain, since twixt us was many and many a
Mountain buried in shadow, and widely reverberant billow.
Nay, that thou mightest rejoice with thee, thou impudent! came we
Winning amends for thee, and Menelaus,—thou Dog Eye !—
From the Trojans. Yet this thou neither regardest nor heedest ;
And from me, thou dost threaten thyself, to take mine allotment,
Which with hardship I earned, and received from the sons of the Grecians.
Nor with thee had I once am equal ward, when the Grecians
Utterly wasted some wealthy and populous town of the Trojans ;
Nevertheless the heavier share of tumultuous battle
These my hands have wrought. But if ever there comes a division,
Thine is the larger award ; while I my little and dear bought
Bearing, return to the ships, worn out and disgusted with fighting.
Now I am going to Phthia; because it is manifold better,
Homeward to go with our crow beaked vessels; nor you, I imagine,
Here, where I am dishonoréd, will heap up wealth and abundance. ”’
Then responded to him the monarch of men, Agamemnon :
« Certainly, go, if the spirit impeis ! not I, I assure thee,
Will entreat thee to tarry for me! Sooth, others are with me,
Who will honor me yet, and especially Zens the omniscient.
Hatefullest art thou to me of the princes divinely descended.
Ever to thee is contention is thy darling, and conflict, and battle.
Truly if thou beest bold, a divinity with it endowed thee !
Getting thee home with both thy galleys and thy companions
Over thy Myrmidons lord it! I care nothing about thee !
Nothing regard Ia madcap! Yet of this I assure thee :—
Sithence from me hath Phoebus Appollo taken Chryséis,
Her in a ship of my own, and with my chosen companions,
The Western.
Will I send ; but I take Briséis the Beautiful Featured,
(Going myself to her tent), thy prize that thou mayest discover
How much stronger am I than thou ; and another may keep from
Calling himself my equal, and simulating my power. ”
Thus he spake. And Pelides was wrath, and his spirit within him,
Under his shaggy breast, was vibrant with wavering purpose ;
190 Whether drawing forth his Keen-edged blade from his scabbard,
Them to rouse to rebellion, and slay the offspring of Atreus ;
Or to ally his choler, and keep his soul in subjection.
While he this was debating down in his veins and his spirit,
And from its scabbard his huge sword drawing, came Pallas Athéné,
Down from heaven—sent by the goddess, Juno the White Armed,
In whose soul both heroes were equally cherished and cared for,
Stood she behind him, and plucked the yellow hair of Pelides,
Only to him appearing ; and nose of the rest of them saw her.
Then was Achilles alarmed, and turned, and recognized straightway
200 Pallas Athéné, and both her eyes shone terrible on him.
J. A. MARTLING,
LAW AND CAUSE.
In language as well as science we perceive changes
subject to all-pervading, ever-prevailing laws and we
are apt to refer to them as the cause of such change,
whereas a law is but the statement of a fact in a general
way. Uniting the known facts in their uniform fea-
tures we express what there is identical and permanent
by what we call a law. Hence a law is but a re-state-
ment of a fact in its permanent characteristics. To say
that a certain law will control all future facts and has
controlled all past ones, is saying simply that a fact can
Law and Cause. 685
not exist without its characteristic features. Laws, if
this be true, are not causal, unless we wish to assert that
this fact causes itself. And this is the gist of the mat-
ter in any case; does the fact cause itself or is it caused ?
In our thinking there appears to lie the necessity of
looking beyond for a cause, and not to be satisfied be-
fore what appears to us the cause is found. At least
even those that value thinking less than observing and
set out with the dogma that there is no external cause,
no “‘pushing god,” look for a cause beyond the individ-
ual fact and believe they find itinlaws. For instance;
avery common, though not a general mistake of ex-
pression is, that the cause of the motion of the heavenly
bodies is the /aw of gravitation. Now, of course, the
correct expression from that standpoint is to say that
the phenomenon is caused by gravitation. This is a mis-
take in expression merely: the’ meaning of both is the
same. For all we know of gravitation is the law of
gravitation, in its general expression as law and its spe-
cial expression, the actual motion of each planet. To
us things are what we know of them. Hence gravita-
tion cannot be anything else for us but the law of grav-
itation. By common usage a wider meaning is attached
to the word gravitation. It is taken to mean the
cause of the law of working or thought gravitation, In
this there lies a tacit acknowledgment that there is a
cause for the law of gravitation. If we point to gravi-
tation as the cause of the law of gravitation, there is not
any new meaning added; for all we know of gravitation
is the law. Hence, to say that gravitation is the cause
of the law of gravitation, means first, that there is a
cause beyond the law, second that we know nothing
about this cause. This is important because science
686 The Western.
frequently begs the question by sneaking into the po-
sition of discoverer of causes by assuming that this
is equivalent to being a discoverer of laws. The way
this trick is successfully performed is to discover a “‘/aw
of something,” and then to pass off the last term as the
cause of the law, without any attempt at proof that it is
so Or inquiry as to the question in what respect the law
differs from the cause. The first, the discovery of the
law is a great deed ; the second manipulation, however,
a piece of jugglery and fraud which makes the blackest
metaphysical sin shine white as daylight. It is the en-
couragement of intellectual indolence. It is throwing
into the teeth of mankind hungering after the solution
of the world-problem cause the empty shell of a term.
Goethe knew the trick well and assigns it a worthy
place. He makes it the devil’s advice to the student :
Mephist.—Hear, therefore, one alone, for that is best, in sooth,
And simply take your master’s words for truth.
Onwards \et your attention center!
Then through the safest gate you'll enter
The temple halls of Certainty.
Student.—Yet in the word must some idea be.
Mephist.—Of course! But only shun too sharp a tension,
For just where fails the comprehension,
A words steps in as deputy
With words ’tis excellent disputing ;
System to words ’tis easy smiting ;
On words ’tis excellent believing
No word can ever lose a jot from thieving.
At the discovery of a new law anywhere the heart of
mankind feels a reflection of the glow of Pythagoras
_ when he discovered the magister matheseos and it is a
pity that his example cannot be followed out to the end
by a hecatomb of the unreasoning cattle that falsifies
immediately the discovery of a law into discovery of a
Law and Cause. 687
cause. We can afford to rejoice at the discovery of any
law even if we cannot agree with others regarding the
correctness and extent of the discovery. For it is al-
ways gratifying to see the human mind asserts its mas-
tery over the rubbish of transitory facts by preserving
their permanent characteristic features in the shape of
laws. In this the work of metaphysics and physics is
at one. They try to find the one in the many, the cen-
tral law in the nebule of facts.
We may rejoice at the discovery of the law of natu-
ral selection, as it brings unity into diversity and sub-
sumes phenomena under ideas. We are ready to see in
it an account of the order in which organic changes
take place, but we differ with those who assume that
order and cause are equivalent terms. How a thing is
done and why it is done, we hold to be two different
questions, and we are not prepared to say that answer-
ing the first question is the same as answering the sec-
ond.
Science seems to move in circles: in the end it re-
turns to its beginning. The innumerable special causes
to which the special sciences attribute their series of
phenomena are again referred to a smaller number of
primitive causes, matter and force. These in the end
are represented as being one and the same indivisible
cause. Hence we return to the nameless unfathomable
being of the early Jews. In the special causes we find
the same thought-content out of which Greek imagina-
tion shaped the natural gods.
Recent science teaches us to look towards the sun,
as the source of all life; it holds that in spiral gyra-
tions our planet is approaching him and will finally
unite with the giver of light.
688 The Western.
Is this not the same view which unerring linguistic
research traces to the belief of the ancestors of our
race. The old name for God, from the Sanskrit dyu,
denotes the clear heaven. So our ancestors turned to-
wards the light of the sun, as we are told to do at pre-
sent, there to find God, the cause of all.
L. F. Sotpan.
THE EDUCATIONAL DEMANDS OF THE
AGE--THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE.
Language has been called sacred ground because it is
the deposit of thought. No one can tell what language
is. It may bea production of nature, a work of hu-
man art or a divine gift. But to whatever agency it
owes its origin, it stands unrivalled. If it be a produc-
tion of nature it is its chief production. If it bea
work of human art it would seem to lift the human ar-
tist almost to a level with the Divine. If it be the im-
mediate work of God then it is the crowning gift of
God to man.
The problem of the position that man occupies be-
tween the world of matter and the world of spirit has
assumed great prominence among the thinkers of the
age. And however extended the frontiers of the Ani-
mal kingdom have become so that the line of demarca-
tion between the animal and the man consisted only in
the different foldings of the brain, yet there is one grand
The Educational Demands of the Age. 689
distinction that no one has ever ventured to touch.
Even those philosophers who reduce all thought to
feeling, and maintain that we share the faculties of
thought ir common with the lower animals, are obliged
to confess that as yet no race of animals has been dis-
covered that has produced a language. Locke, who is
generally classed with materialists, says ‘“This I may
be positive in, that the power of abstracting is not at
all in brutes, and the having general ideas is that which
puts a perfect distinction between man and brute, They
have no general signs for universal ideas ; from which
we may reason that they have not the faculty of ab-
stracting or making general ideas since they have no
use of words or other general signs.”
Hence by common consent /anguage distinguishes
man from all the lower animals.
If then the gift of intelligent speech is the established
boundary line between man and the lower animals and
can never be removed its study possesses a peculiar in-
terest to us. If there existed animals altogether as per-
fect in their organization as man, and doubtless many
of them are, yet no thoughtful person need feel uneasy.
Sydney Smith in his humorous way says, “‘I confess I feel
myself so much at ease about the superiority of man-
kind. I have such a marked contempt for the under-
standing of every baboon I have ever seen. I feel so
sure that the blue ape without a tail will never rival us
in poetry, painting and music, that I see no reason what-
ever that justice may not be done to the few fragments
of soul and tatters of understanding that monkeys may
really possess.”” The earliest thinkers and framers of
language made a distinction between man and other an-
imals. The general idea or the first conception of the
690 The Western.
word man teaches this fact. The Sanscrit Mance sig-
nified originally a thinker, and afterward man. Mé@
means to measure. Mana derivitive root denotes to
think. In Gothic we find both man and mannisks and
the modern German mann and mensch all have the
same signification. The fact that names, though signs
of individual conceptions, are all, without exception
derived from general ideas, is well known to students
of language, and it is also well understood that having
general ideas is that which places a perfect distinction
between man and brutes. The Ancients must have
known this for in the Greek language the word /ogos
means reason and a/ogon is the name for brute.
Man is the only animal that reasons and speaks.
Thought and language are inseparable, wards without
thought are unmeaning sounds. Prof. Heyse says,
“It must be accepted as an ultimate fact, that man in
his primitive state was endowed with a faculty peculiar
to himself, by which every impression from without re-
ceived its vocal expression from within.”
The mature of language. Speech is the work of the
mind coming to a clearer consciousness of its own con-
ceptions, and of their combinations and relations and
is at the same time the means by which that clearer con-
sciousness is attained; and hence it works out its own
progress; its very use produces its own improvement.
Constant practice in the use of language to convey ideas
gives new powers to expression. The speech of a coni-
munity is the reflex of its average growth and capacity,
because the community alone is able to change a lan-
guage. The stock of words in use corresponds to what
is known in the community.
It seems manifest however that man speaks not in
The Educational Demands of the Age. 693
order to think but toimpart thought. His social wants,
his social instincts, his relations to his fellow men, im-
pel him to use the gift of language. A strict inquiry
into the nature and office of language teaches us that it
belongs not so much to man as an individual, as it does
to him as a member of society. No element or word
in language is the work of one individual because it is
not considered a part of language until accepted and
employed by others. The whole development of speech
although begun by the acts of individuals is wrought
out by the whole community. A word, no matter what
its form or origin, that is understood in the community
is the sign of an idea. And unless it is so understood
it is not the sign of anything but a mere sound without
significance. Every word, before being incorporated
into intelligible language must pass the ordeal of usage.
Mutual intelligibility then is the prime requisite in pre-
serving the unity of any tongue. The imperfection of
language as a complete representation of thought is an
evidence that they are not identical. The most perfect
forms of speech are mere skeletons of expression, hints
at the meaning, which must be filled out by the intelli-
gence of the auditor. Our own mental acts and condi-
tions we can review in our consciousness in minute de-
tail, but we can never perfectly reveal them to another
by the use of speech, nor will words alone, no differ-
ence how sincerely spoken put us in complete posses-
sion of the entire consciousness of another.
In regard to anything except the simplest subjects of
thought we need some acquaintance with the individual
writer or speaker, with his style of thought and senti-
ment before we are sure that we penetrate to the central
meaning of every word and sentence that he utters.
692 The Western.
And such study enables us to find deeper significance in
expressions that once seemed trivial or commonplace.
That language is impotent to express our inmost feel-
ings is a frequent experience. How often must we la-
bor by painful circumlocution, to place before the
minds of others a conception which is clearly present to
our own consciousness. How often when we have the
expression nearly complete we fail to catch the proper
word and use a term that is vague or ambiguous. How
different is the capacity of ready and distinct expression
in persons of equal power of thought. Often he whose
grasp of mind is the greatest, whose judgment is sound-
est, and whose skill of inference is most unerring, fails
to be understood through clumsiness of speech.
Our conclusion then is that thought is anterior to
language and independent of it, and that language grows
out of the communication that man must and will have
with his fellows.
The importance of language. The value of speech
to the human race is apparent toevery one. Language
for all its uses is the chief of earthly studies. Consid-
ered apart from its uses it is a subject of the deepest in-
terest. Language is the first intellectual want of man
and there is nothing also that he usesso much. There is
no other instrument gives so much power to the indi-
vidual as a skilled use of language. Many persons
otherwise gifted, walk obscurely through life with little
strength, unconscious of the power within them, be-
cause untrained to theclear, definite and earnest expres-
sion of thought. Language enables men to become
what the Creator intended him to be, a social being. It
converts the race into a community having a unity of
purpose; acommon development to which each indi-
The Educational Demands of the Age. 693
vidual contributes his share to receive untold treasures
in return. And as we have seen it marks the boundary
between man and the lower animals; how can we draw
the line clearly without it? Although our endowments
are infinitely superior, “‘created a little lower than the
angels” what would be the value of these gifts to the
races if without language. We are so accustomed to the
use of speech that it is difficult to conceive of the con-
dition of mankind without it. Language alone makes
history possible. A knowledge of the races is handed
down to us and ina short time, by hearing and read-
ing we possess ourselves of more enlightment than
could be worked out by the individual in centuries. It
puts us in possession of all the culture of our ancestors
that have resulted from the combined labors of innu-
merable minds through a succession of ages. By it we
trace back to the very beginning of history to the germ
of development in the East shadowed forth in languages
long since dead.
We do not realize how much of thought and study
of the past is stored up in the simplest words we use.
Each generation transmitted to its successor what it
had inherited itself, and perfected and increased their
results, while the accummulation of words and the
growth of language kept pace with the acquisition of
knowledge.
Literature furnishes a large and fruitful field. Here
language is employed, not as in the daily intercourse of
life, for present uses, but as the guardian of the precious
treasures of thought and experience laid by in the past
for all succeeding ages. Here are to be found alike the
selectest monuments of human genius and the most en-
during memorials of human toil.
694 The Western.
The historic literature of the world hangs together in
a connected chain of sequences, trom first to last.
Modern literature is the ripe fruit of the higher growths
of thought that have appeared upon the summits of
each preceding age. The literature of our age is what
it is, because Greece, Rome, Italy, Germany, France
and Holland, from whom in various degrees it has de-
rived its substance, form and feature, were each respect-
ively what they were. There is no one body of litera-
ture of such majestic proportions, of such beautiful and
divine aspects as our own. In every college in the land
there ought to be a professorship of English literature,
whose function it should be to unfold the life and writ-
ings of the leading literary men of England and Amer-
ica, accompanied by a broad and generous spirit of crit-
icism upon the substance and style of the great works
in our language.
The age demands a more thorough knowledge of the
English language. Recent investigations in Philology
reveal the fact that the English is spoken and written
by a greater mumber of people than any other exist-
ing tongue of high cultivation, and its sphere seems to
be widening at home and abroad more rapidly than any
other.
We overrate the educating value of the mere process
of learning the dead langugages, but we cannot place too
great an estimate upon the English. The mother
tongue is the only one that can stand to our modern
education in the relation in which the classical tongues
stood to the scholars during the revival of learning.
The Greek and Latin languages were mother tonges
to them as students, because it was them alone that they
reached the thoughts that gave them education; they
Historical Drama. 695
were not drilled on empty words and forms ; they stud-
ied no grammars because there were none in existence;
but they drank at the fountains of ancient learning
through a profound knowledge of ancient languages.
It is only by a real study of the mother tongue that
we can ester the domain of modern literature and
especially of the sciences. It is through one tongue,
and not many, that true discipine of all can best be im-
parted, inasmuch as that is the only one that ever can
or will be mastered by a majority of men. Now for
the first time, there is a possibility that through progress
of linguistic science we may have a systematic and sci-
entific study of the mother tongue, and our own lan-
guage may be made the basis of a liberal education.
Z.G Witson.
HISTORICAL DRAMA—CORIOLANUS.
In the Historical drama a new field opens. The do-
mestic relations of man are placed in the background,
and the political element becomes paramont. The
family occupies still a position as an ethical institution,
but it is now subordinate in importance to the State.
Consequently a different kind of effect is produced, for
the species of drama is. different. In the Family the
emotions of man are at home, and manifest themselves
in their greatest intensity ; the collisions occurring in it
therefore appeal in the strongest manner to the feelings.
But the State rests more upon intelligence and is further
696 The Western.
removed from our daily life and its sympathies, though
it must not be thought that the State is devoid of an
emotional basis in human nature. Indeed love of coun-
try is capable of absorbing every other activity in certain
periods of great national calamity ; still in the ordinary
life of men the Family is necessarily the more immedi-
ate institution. The main pathos of the Historical drama
will therefore be different from that of the domestic
drama.
A comprehension of the various colliding principles
which are inherent in the nature of the state, now be-
comes indispensible. First is the external collision
with another State. For a conflict lies in the very limi-
tation of one nation against another nation; each one
seeks, must seek, to assert its own individual existence
and its own principle. This finally brings on the supreme
struggle in which one of the nations usually sinks out of
the ken of History. Whether or not it is prossible to
avoid war by any political appliances is a subject which
does not belong here; it is sufficient to say that they
have not hitherto been successful. The conflict comes,
a people and a civilization pass away forever.
But the victorious nation after the lapse of its alloted
period meets with the same fate; it is conquered and
disappears. The same mighty principle which destroy-
ed its enemy now destroys it ; so the series continues’or
has continued in the past. But what shall we call this
principle which thus uses the nations as its instruments‘?
Its reality will not be doubted, it is clearly the highest,
strongest principle of History. Let us name it the world
historical principle, or even the World Spirit (Weltgeist).
It calls a nation into existence to execute its behests,
this is then a world-historical nation. In looking at the
Historical Drama. 697
past we observe that in antiquity the empires of the
Orient, Greece, Rome were world-historical nations at
successive periods. But the main interest for us is the
collision which hence arises. A nation armed with this
principle goes forth to subdue other nations and subordi-
nate them to the same influence. The result is a struggle
between the world-historical spirit and the State, which
gives the highest possible collision, but at the same
time, farthest removed from the popular feeling and the
popular consciousness.
A second phase of the external collision of the State
can hardly be elevated to the dignity of the preceding.
It is when wars are entered upon from national or mon-
archical caprice, or from some trifling and temporary
interest. Thus we have State against State simply.
Still even in the most trivial conflicts, some faint reflec-
tion of the World-Spirit may be often traced. In the
petty struggles of non-historical people and tribes, like
those of America, Asia and Africa, there can be, how-
ever, but little significance.
But it must not be thought that this nti histor-
ical spirit is some external power outside of the people
themselves. It is in fact their own inner development,
their deepest consciousness. The nation which perishes
does so through itself, so the nation which conquers
conquers through itself. When one people makes a
higher synthesis than its neighbors in its institutions
and in its thought, that people is bound to be victo-
rious in the end. It has so happened in the past that
nationality has not been able to change fundamentally
its principle, and pass to the higher one; each nation
has seemed capable of realizing only one world-histor-
ical thought.
ad .
698 The Western.
Such are the essential phases of the external collision
ot the State. We now pass to consider the internal
collision which is always more direct and of greater in-
terest to the citizen, as well as more continuous ‘in its
effect. Now the State is divided within itself, separ-
ates into opposing elements, and at once we behold the
phenomenon of political parties. These are essentialy
twe but with many shades of difference within chem-
selves. It is a fact which has always excited surprise
and investigation. All states in particular all free states
have this diremption in their very nature, though it is
sometimes foolishly regretted. But the content, the
foundation of the political party is the State itself, nay,
lies in the constitution of the human mind. Some men
hold on to institutions, to customs, in general to all the
realized forms of intelligence, in their permanence and
unchangeableness alone public safety and public happi-
ness are supposed to lie. This view though absolutely
true in its proper limitations, becomes in its extreme
one-sidedness destruction of all progress, the human
mind is cramped in the trammels of a rigid tormalism,
and freedom of every kind is anihilated. The protest
of the outraged spirit of man produces a new party
which inits excess seeks to destroy or to be forever
changing the established institutions of the State. In the
modern political world these two parties are known as
Conservative and Radical; it is their action and re-action
which on the one hand secures to institutions perma-
nence and on the other hand prevents them from becom-
ing fetters. In antiquity class or caste was the dividing
line of party, and the same is true at the present time
though to a different extent among different peoples.
The patrician was by birth a Conservative, for he wish-
Historical Drama. 699
ed to retain the ancient privileges of his order, while the
Plebian was by birtha Radical, for he wished to acquire
new rights. To employ another form of expression,
the one side represented the objective, the permanent ;
the other side represented the subjective, the changea-
ble. Both are not only necessary to the State, but be-
long to every complete individual mind.
The particular issue upon which the parties divide is
very different in different countries and in the same
country at different times. It may be division of the
land, right of suffrage, paper money etc. But each issue
reflects the general spirit of the whole, and each party
therein adumbrates its universal character. In reference
to the drama, this particular side must be presented in
its full sensuous completeness.
This conflict of parties isa perennial one and ought to
be, for from it comes all political vitality, all true devel-
opement. Butit leads to guilt and hence becomes trag-
ic when it seduces the individual into placing his party
above his country. Both parties must be subordinate
to the State, must have their end and design in its well-
being. Hence at this point arises the possibility of a
collision of political principles, the one of which is em-
embodied in a partisan organization and the other in
the State. Such is the tendency ofall political parties
perhaps, itis their belief and their constant instruction:
our side must prevail, else the country is ruined. But
it may truly be said if such be really the case, then the
country is already ruined. When the government can—
not be trusted to either of the great political organiza-
tions without fear of its destruction, the nation is al-
ready on the point of dissolution; the very statement is
a declaration to that effect. But the assertion is seldom
JOO The Western.
l
true, though each party inculcates it as a fundamenta
dogma of its existence that ‘“‘we possess all the patriot-
ism and all the true political principles, while our op-
ponents are the enemies of theircountry.” Such is the
main internal collision of the State wherein party assails
country; the solution is that the individual is ban-
ished or perishes who introduces this conflict.
But the world-historical principal may work also
through the Party as we saw it before working through the
State. In suchcase the result is the destruction of the
nation from within, or at least a fundamental change in
its constitution. For the World-Spirit feeds upon na-
tions, it is the foe of nationality. Hence the world-hist-
orical individual appears as the destroyer of his country,
of the constitution and the laws. But in reality he only
carries out what has already been developed in the con-
sciousness of the people.
All social innovations when they become of national
importance assume the form of a political party. This
is therefore the means by which the spirit of man rises
into institutions, objectifies itself in more perfect forms.
A persistent agitation of some social question finally
produces a party out of a clique, which then may be-
come the dominant party, and rule the country and
make the laws in accordance with its principle. Some
class, as the laborers or the property holders, may suc-
ceed in elevating itself into a party, if its claims become
atruly nationalquestion. Thus every social revolu-
tion takes the shape of a political party and may there-
fore be made one of the elements of an internal collision
of the State.
If we now take a glance back and recapitulate what
has been elaborated, we find that there are essentially
Historical Drama. 701
two grand collisions of the State, the external and the
internal. The former is one individual State against
another individual State, either of which may be the
bearer of a world-historical principle or of ‘some finite
national end. The latter isthe Political Party against
the State; here too a world-historical element may be
involved, or some merely partisan or individual object.
These phases would seem to comprehend the totality of
the relations of the State from this point of view. The
Family too exists in this play of colliding powers and
may itself fall into conflict with any one or all of them.
Thus the Poet has an ample store from which he can
select to diversify his treatment.
The Tragedy of Coriolanus will furnish an illustra-
tion of these principles, for it presents phases of them
all. It will be seen that the action exhibits two distinct
movements, the one of which terminates in the banish-
ment of the hero, the other in his death. Coriolanus
is protrayed as the great defender of his country, but al-
so as the greater enemy of the plebians; partisan ran-
cour leads to his expulsion, to his separation from fam-
ily and State. Herein both sides commit wrong Such
is the first movement. The second movement shows
Coriolanus passing over to the enemies of his country,
in order to ruin it and thereby ruin the opposite party.
Patriotism is subordinate to partisan hate, even attach-
ment to his own class can not outweigh his desire for
revenge. His nation and his order therefore can not
mediate his hostility to a party, but his family can,
though at the cost of the life of himself, one of its
members.
On the other hand, the two threads which run through
the whole play are the political and domestic in their
702 The Western.
manifold relation and interaction; the first of which is
shown in both its internal and external manifestations
while the family has its various sides represented in the
mother, wife, husband, son, father, neighbor and
friend.
Taking up the first thread, we find that at the very
beginning of the play the key note is struck, internal
dissension through parties. The people are riotous, not
without cause, for they want bread; they also recognize
their chief enemy among the patricians to be Caius Mar-
cius (Coriolanus). But even among the people is
heard the voice of moderation, a citizen appeals to
them toremember his services to the country. The
demagogue too is present who thrives on sedition and
whose tendency always is to subordinate State to Party.
Having thus the one side in its excess, Marcius comes
before us the representative of the other extreme. He
reproaches the populace with cowardice, insubordina-
tion and fickleness, employing an intensity of language
which could only provoke wrath, and even descends to
mocking their personal habits. Nay, he is ready to
destroy them utterly:
Would the nobility lay aside their neth
And let me use my sword, I'd make a quarry
With thousands of these quartered slaves, as high
As 1 could pick my lance.
Here is manifested the wrong of Coriolanus, he seems
to think that nobody has even the right of life except
his party. Itis clear that no State can exist with such
contending elements in its bosom; one side must be
eliminated.
But as we saw a moderate among the plebians, soal-
so there must be the mediator of patrician blood.
This is Menenius, an old man of noble stock but be-
loved by the people. His object is conciliation, his
Historical Drama. 703
stand-point isthe common country of both high and
low, he reaches the people by his homely anecdotes.
The fable of the belly and members treats of the neces-
sity of harmony in an organization; each member must
fulfil its function and yet be subordinate to the purpose
of the whole. Still Menenius insists more strongly up-
on thecentral or controlling principle as a good patri-
cian should do; the people are to be cared for like an
eternal baby. But they are determined to have estab-
lished rights, and the special power of the tribunes to en-
force them. Just now they are asserting the right to
live against the right of property, they must have some-
thing to eat, though the corn belongs to another. It
is the old story of all revolutions: a vested right has be-
comea great fetter and a great wrong. The extreme
principle of Coriolanus is to maintain what is estab-
lished and to destroy the innovators; Menenius would
also maintain the ancient system of things with a pater-
nal guardianship of the people. But the latter will be,
indeed are already an integral, not an accidental element
of the body politic; they have secured certain privileges
and the means for enforcing them, and thus participate
also in the established institutions of the country.
But this internal conflict must now cease in the pres-
ence of the external one, the war with the Volscians.
Here again there are two contending elements each of
which must be brought before the reader. The Volscian
State is faintly sketched, it does not differ essentially
from the Roman, we are told of a Senate and Senators,
there isa hint of asystem of espionage. But the main
figure on the Volscian side is Aufidius, who is portrayed
quite as the counterpart of Coriolanus, though witha
personal jealousy which is foreign to the character of
704 The Western.
the latter. There is no world-historical principle at
stake, the whole war has the appearance of a predatory
foray, though Rome is of course defending the exis-
tence of the State which has been attacked from with-
out.
To turn now to the Roman side, we find that the
campaign has been so arranged as to display the valor
of Coriolanus in its most colossal manifestation. The
army is in two divisions, though the hero is apparently
a private soldier; the division in which he is present
attacks the Volscian town, the Roman soldiery made up
of the common people, flee while he maintains the con-
test single-handed; through his prowess mainly the town
is taken. The contrast is here evident. Coriolanus
possesses in the highest degree the patrician virtue of
personal courage which is not so highly developed in
plebian blood. But this is not the end of his heroic feats.
He passes to the second division of the Roman army
distant “‘not a mile’ which has just been driven back;
with his presence victory return, and for the sixth time
he vanquishes his valiant foeman Aufidius. We now
see the clear outlines of his character; his chief trait is
declared to be personal pride, strength of individuality
which he is ready to assert against every restraining
power. With this pride the institutions of his country
will conflict; the question is, which principle must be
subordinated.
He is received in-Rome with great rejoicing; his
family and his friends crowd around; the Senate gives
hima public reception. But he is too proud—for it is
hardly modesty-tohear his own praise, he seems almost
to disdain recognition from mortals. In the general joy
party is forgotten by the plebians and he is elected con-
Historical Drama. 705
sul. But he despises the means, the humiliating cere-
mony in presence of the people to which he is forced by
them has excited his disgust and wrath; party spirit is.
again aroused and his election is revoked. Coriolanus
cannot submit to an institution, his individual will is
supreme. This first discipline of office, the suppression
of his personal caprice and the submission to the estab-
lished custom can not be endured by him:
What custom wills, in all things should we do’t
The dust on antique time would lie unswept,
And mountainous error be too highly heaped
For truth to o’er peer.
Hence on this side he is as revolutionary as the ple-
bians. The two parties thus reach the same point:
the destruction of the institutions which restrain their
tendencies. The patricians however asthe true con-
servative element of society, seek to conciliate both
sides and to retain the ancient laws and customs of the
nation.
The next step of Coriolanus is to attempt to unite
his order into a_ violent party and to take away the
tribunate and other privileges of the people. He ap-
peals to the nobles with powerful arguments, but his
effort ‘isin vain. It is not their principle, indeed it
is the duty of authority to prevent the State from dis-
solving into its elements. Here is the point where
Coriolanus separates from his order: the one subordi-
nates State to Party, the other subordinates Party to
State. Thus a newconflict arises; Coriolanus turns
against his order, and fa!! back upon his own individual
will, his pride, which he will assert against both parties
and even against the State. What is the result? He
must leave, since such a man can not be mediated;
family, triends, class are all brought in, but they can
706 The Western.
not reconcile him with the existing order of things.
He suffers the fate of the heroic individual amids in-
stitutions, he is banished.
D. J. Sniper
[Continued in next number.]
MME. DE STAEL.
(Translated from G. Brandes. Hauptstromihgen des Neunzehten Jahrhunderts) ;
M me de Stael was born as it were to her historical
mission. She possessed the highest degree of vivacity.
In general, reforming souls may be divided into two
classes. To the first belong the discoverers or inventors
who produce a single important work and leave it to
its fate perhaps, not to be understood and recognized till
after their death. To the second belong those who have
the capacity to electrify , whose conversational power is
greater than their literary, whose words flow like streams
of light over that of which they speak, and who not only
impress others but make them productive. Those who
knew Mme. de Stael have always declared to the admir-
ers of her writings : ‘“‘Her writings are nothing, you
should have heard her talk.” Her forte was conversa-
tion; in this respect at least she was a genuine French-
woman. One of her critics closes with the words :
“‘when one listens to her it is impossible not to agree
with her; if she had said this instead of writing it I could
Mme. De Stael. 707
never have criticised her;” and a great lady, Mme ed
Tessé, said of her: “‘If I were the Queen I should com-
mand Mme. de Stael to talk to me forever.”
And in close connection with her ability to electrify
was her ability to command. She was a regal nature.
Not without reason was she Bonaparte’s rival. Like
kim she continually widened her kingdom by an
ever increasing manifoldness of ideas, by healthy and
profound feeling and by enviable friendships. In Cop-
pet, she actually held court. A crowd of select spirits
assembled about her from ail countries. One might
have‘had the good fortune to meet there at the same
time, Constant, whom she called “‘le premier esprit du
monde,” A. W. Schlegel, the celebrated founder of the
romantic school in Germany, the well known historian,
Sismondi, whose literary activity is animated by the
same ideas for which the romantic school in France
contended at a later period, the Danish poet Adam
Oehlenschlager, ,in short, the first of the time. Every-
body made a pilgrimage to Coppet, just as, half a cen-
tury before, to the neighboring town of Ferney. For
here Voltaire, banished beyond the French limits, like
Mme. de Stael, but dwelling as near these limits as pos-
sible, collected all Euro>e about him in his last
years.
So famous is the name of Ferney in history. The
fame which radiates from Coppet can not of course
compare with it, but has nevertheless its own greatness
and beauty. Here too justice, truth and the noblest love
of freedom sprang up in exile. In this century each of
the three great countries of Europe banished its great-
est author. Did not not Byron wander homeless
through Europe? Did not Heinrich Heine died in
708 The Western.
Paris? Did not Victor Hugo spend twenty years on the
island of Jersey? The power of genins grows under
persecution. Of this Mme. de Stael had her share.
She too experienced the feeling of loneliness of those
who are of the opposition. She herself relates how
one day in Paris when she expected company to dine af-
ter the morning when one of her party had attacked the
government she received one excuse after another un-
til she sat alone ‘at her table. How deserted was she
afterwards in her banishment. What prominent poli-
cian dared visit her? Every one had some hinderance,
either business or illness. ‘‘Ah” she said once “how
weary I am of all this cowardice in the guise of weak
lungs.” Tallyrand, whose name had been taken from
the list of exiles through her intercession showed him-
self too ungrateful to move a finger to gain permission
for her to return to Paris at a time when she wasin ut-
ter despair from homesickness. Nevertheless she did
not hate him, she hated no one, she forgave everybody,
but she left atrueand striking picture of himas Mme.
de Vernon in “Delphine.” A profound melancholy
appears at the close of one of her letters to him, ‘‘Fare-
well! Are you happy? With so mighty an intellect do
you not sometimes penetrate to the bottom of things,
to unhappiness? Her stoicism failed her in misfortune.
A cry of lamentation escaped her over her fate--calum-
niated and persecuted she wished to die.
“Of all the powers which I received from Nature”
she makes Corinne say, “‘the power to suffer is the only
one of which I have made full use.” Her vivacity was
always in conflict with the sadness of exile. On her
death-bed she said, ‘‘I have always been the same, gay
and sad, I have loved my God, my father, and Free-
dom.”
Mme. De Stael. 709
She loved Freedom like Voltaire, but with the love
of another age. She carries forward his work, while
resisting it. Her first literary eftort, “‘Literature con-
sidered in its relation to society” which appeared in the
year 1800, had the fundamental idea that social Free-
dom must necessarily lead toa literary reform, and
that it would be an absurdity tor a society which had
conquered political Freedom to have a fettered litera-
ture. In the glowing zeal of her youth she cries out,
‘might we but find a philopophical system, an enthu-
siasm for the Good, a powerful and honest legislation
which could do for us what Christian religion did for
the past.” Jealous of her budding fame, zealous as the
Knight of faith, Chateaubriand was at his post and called
attention to her book. Other critics had derided her
melancholy and sought to crush her by comparison with
the Greeks, who were not at all melancholy. Chateau-
briand improved the opportunity to strike a blow for
positive religion. ‘‘Mme. de Stael” he said ‘‘ascribes
to philosophy what I ascribe to religion.” And of her-
self, he says ‘ther talent is only half developed, phil-
osophy stifles it. They seem not to hamonize; but how
could philosophy cure the despondency of her soul?
Can one desert make an other desert fruitful?” And
he exhausts himself in similar nonsensical phrases,
which soon enough betrayed that fear of being eclipsed
by Mme. de Stael which with good reason never for-
sook him.
Delphine appeared, and the opposition became
stronger. The best known critic of the time wrote:
*‘Nothing is so dangerous and more immoral than the
principles which are set forth inthis work. Forgetting
the views in which she was educated and the protestant
710 The Western.
doctrine of her family, Necker’s daughter contemns
Revelation, and has written a long defense of divorce in
this very bad book, which is written with much spirit
and talent. Delphine speaks of love like a Bacchante,
of God like a Quaker, of death like a grenadier and of
morals like a sophist.” In 1803 Mme. de Stzael was
forced to leave Paris. She first went to Germany, next
to Italy. Then she settled in Switzerland, she, the
child of Paris, who exclaimed at the first sight of the
lake of Geneva, “‘O, how much more beautiful was the
gutter in the Rue du Bac.”
At this time there appeared a decree in regard to the
freedom of the press which declared that no work should
be printed without having been examined by the censor;
followed by a second decree, having particular reference
to Mme. de Stael, which enacted that when the censors
had allowed the publication of a work the minister of
Police could altogether suppress the same in case he
considered it advisible--a law which entirely abolished
all law. When ‘“‘de ’Allemagne”was to be printed
Mme. de Stael received permission to come within
forty leagues of Paris, in order to superintend the pub-
lication. She fluttered around her beloved Paris within
. the prescribed distance as a moth flutters around the
light. Once she even ventured at the risk of her life
to enter. Perhaps she wanted to see her beloved gutter
again. In the meantime the censors read her book,
corrected and erased, gave their endorsement to the mu-
tilated volume. Ten thousand copies were printed.
But at the moment when the work was to appear the
minister of Police sent his gensd’armes to the book
store, and, after having posted sentinels at every exit,
completed, at Napoleon’s order, the heroic deed of cut-
Mme. De Stael. 711
ting to pieces and destroying the ten thousand copies;
after which they threw the whole into a pond and gave
the book seller twenty Louis d’or as indemnification.
At the same time Mme. de Stael received instructions to
deliver up her manuscript,--the study and hopes of six
full years--and leave France within the next four and
twenty hours. In the letter sent by the minister of Po-
lice on this occasion we find the following: ‘‘Your last
work is not French.”
Therein lay her ruin, ‘‘not French.” It is this work,
“De [ Allemagne” from which the whole new epoch of
French literature can be dated, this work which for
the first time, in principle and not casually, breaks with
the antiquated tradition in French literature,--this work
it is which the sagacious minister of Police presumes
to call “‘not French.” Do we not feel the irony?
She fled. She retired to her estate near Geneva, but
believe not that here she was free. The prefect of Gen-
eva gave her to understand that she was not allowed to
go beyond four leagues from Geneva. And so well
was she watched that forgetting the order once she was
immediately overtaken by gens d’armes and brought
back. But although in other respects a prisoner, in
Coppet she was a queen. Ochlenschlager in his autobi-
ography describes his visit to Mme. de Stael in 1808.
Although Oehlenschlager seems to have had no just idea
of the real greatness of the woman whose guest he was,
still he describes well both his stay and person of his
hostess. He writes, ‘‘the world knows how vivacious,
clever, witty, and amiable Mme. de Stael was. I know
of no woman who has shown so much genius. She had
in consequence something masculine in her character,
was stout, and had a marked countenance. She was not
712 The Western.
beautiful, but her brilliant brown eye was very attractive,
and she possessed in the highest degree the feminine talent
of winning men and knew how by her grace and delicacy
to bring the most dissimilar characters under her sway
and unite them socially. Her genius and her face, al-
most her voice, were masculine, but her soul was emi-
nently feminine,as she has proved in ‘‘Delphine” and
‘*‘Corinne.”” Rousseau has not described love more par-
sionately. Wherein she showed herself she drew, in
spite of the presence of younger and more beautiful
women, all men, Aead and heart, into her circle. Consid-
ering that in additon, she was very rich, very hospita-
blegave splendid dinners every day, so no one will won-
der that she attracted and ruled men like a queen, like a
kind of fairy in he magic castle.” It is plain that her
small hand felt itself born to the scepter.
“Corinne or Italy,” is Mme. de Stael’s most emi-
nent poetical.work. In this paradise of Nature her eye
for nature was opened. She no longer preferred the
the gutter in Paris to Lake Geeva. And here, in the
Forum for instance, one square yard has a greater his-
tory than the whole Russian Empire, here her modern
revolutionary, melancholy was awakened to a taste fot
history, for the antique with its simple and severe re-
pose. Finally here, in Rome, which is almost the cara-
vansery of Europe, she comprehended the peculiarities
and one-sidedness of the different nationalities.
Through her for the first time her own nation became
conscious of its peculiarity and limitation. For in this
book England, France and Italy meet and are under-
stood, not mutually, butin the author and her heroine
Corinne, who is half English and half Italian. Corinne
appears in the poetical world almost as the prototype
Mme. De Stael, 713
of what Elizabeth Browning became in the real world.
Standing one day in Florence before a house which
bore the inscription: ‘‘Here dwelt Elizabeth Barret
Browning, who with her poems made a golden band
between England and Italy,” there the author of ‘‘Aur-
rora Leigh” called up the thought of ‘“‘Corinne.”
Corinne’s life passes under the double inspiration of
genius and love. But from the moment when pas-
sion seizes her, genius is of no avail, and she becomes
its defenceless prey. She loves a young Englishman,
Oswald, Lord Nelvil, a cultivated type of all the pre-
judices and virtues of the North. He too loves her.
But he does not find in Corinne the weak, timid,
woman doubtful of everything except her duties and
her feelings, whom he wished for his bride in England,
where the domestic virtues make the honor and happi-
ness of women. He says, like Thomas Walpole,
“what could one do with such a woman at home!”
For the rest he possesses all the virtues, the most bril-
liant courage, and the tenderest self-sacrifice. Rome
becomes the frame of this love-story. Its marble and
its horizon answer to these profound feelings and great
thoughts. The description of Rome is interwoven very
naturally, for in order to delay her lover, to postpone
his departure, Corinne becomes his guide to all the
wonders of the eternal city. And by this means the
story gains a new importance, for the names of these
two lovers were cut, as Saint-Beuve has said, not like
those of other lovers in the bark of trees, buton the
walls of eternal ruins--are bound up with the world-
history and have become a living part of its immortal-
ity.
Mme. de Stael’s literary activity may be observed
44
714 The Western.
from two sides. It falls as it were into two parts, a
masculine aid feminine activity, the philosophical and
the poetical activity--ideas and feelings. A peculiar
ardor in the treatment of feeling every where betrays
that the authoris a woman. When the time comes
for some one to undertake to write the Psychology
of woman and to attempt to determine the peculiarity
of feminine Phantasy and the feminine mind as distin-
guished from the masculine--for Psychology is so little
advanced that the smallest attempt has not yet been
made-- then the works of Mme. de Stael will furnish
one of the most valuable sources of information. The
femininity perhaps first betrays itself in the manner in
which the hero is delineated. The author indicates
the causes of each of Oswald’s prominent qualities; his
noble character is explained by his education, his aristo-
cratic descent and pride; his melancholy is the result of
English “spleen” and his unhappy relations with his
father; only one thing the author leaves unex-
plained, and that is his physical courage. To risk his
life is as easy and as simple as for us to write orthogra-
phically. It isa curious and invariable feature that
female writers of romance equip their heroes with the
most daring courage, a courage which is never conquered,
but stands almost like an abstraction outside of the per-
sonality, while at the same time it is a fact observed by
numerous great writers that in modern society it is wo-
men who, more than all else, hinder men from bold
undertakings. The explanation seems to be that mas-
culine courage is the quality which becomes a kind of
ideal for woman, but an ideal which she does not under-
stand, which she does not recognize when she sees it,
and which she consequently most Itkes to describe, and
describes the worst.
Mme. De Stael. 715
The description of womanly feeling is Mme. de
Stael’s forte--the feeling of a woman of genius who
suffers the whole martyrdom of genius.
Above all, Corinne’s heart is most deeply moved by
domestic happiness and feminine purity. But this hap-
happiness of Hymen is not granted to Corinne, nor to
Mignon, those two children of aspiration, who, the one
in French, the other in German literature, person-
ify Italy. Corinne is the last descendant of those noble
and lonely sibyls of Italy, of whom tradition is full. She
was born to suffer, she, who herself said that our poor
human nature knows the infinite through suffering. But
before she goes down as the last sacrifice in the antique
arena, she is decked as a sacrifice and is lead in triumph.
“Corinne” might be called a poem upon national
prejudices. Oswald represents those of England, Count
d’ Erfeuil those of France, and against them both, at
that time the strongest and most self-sufficient nations
of Europe, Corinne contends with her whole great soul
and with the enthusiam of her poetical temperament.
This contest is no cold-blooded one, for Corinne’s hap-
piness depends upon how far she succeeds in making
Oswald give up his inherited prejudices so that he may
be happy with a woman like her, whose life in every
direction is opposed to what in England is considered
the only becoming life fora woman. But while Cor-
inne thus tries to widen Oswald’s view and to unbend
his obstinate mind which always springs back into its
wonted grooves, she also effects the education of the
reader. In the province of feeling she contiues the
work which we have seen her accomplish in the province
of ideas. She sketches the first plan for a Psychology
of races, even as regards the most delicate feelings. Her
716 The Western.
countrymen at that time in the vain conviction that they
alone represented civilization, tried to wipe out the
national color of all other countries. Hence it was a
matter of great moment to her to show them that their
conception of feeling is only one among many equally,
and sometimes more valid.
S. E. Core.
BOOK REVIEWS.
Vicror1an Posts by Edmund Clarence Stedman. Boston:
Jas. R. Osgood & Co., 1875.
Heretofore Mr. Stedman, who first appeared as an aut hor in
1860, has been known as one of the most felicitous of our
younger poets, and as a contributor to the best of our maga-
zines. In the present work Mr. Stedman gives us the most ex-
quisite prose that has yet been written by an American, and it
is doubtful whether he need fear comparison with any British
writer except Swinburne. This praise may sound like extrava-
gance, but those who read the book will justify this judgment,
and will think of no American but Whipple with whom to com-
pare him; of course writers like Irving who are masters of the
simple style are not brought into comparison, for with equal
mastery there will still remain a question of preference. No
reader of books will lay down The Victorian Poets without rec-
ognizing that a new master has arisen to exemplify the high-
est grace and elegance of prose style. The Victorian Poets is a
critical estimate of Landor, Hood, Matthew, Arnold, Proctor,
E. B. Browning, Tennyson, Mitford, Trench, Alford, DeVere,
Burbridge, Sterling, Clough, Milnes, Newman, Palgrave,
Plumptree, Myers, Hamerton, Home, Macaulay, Aytoun, Kings-
ley, Thornbury, Thackeray, Bulwer, Wade, Domett, Scott, Mrs.
Adams, Lover, Allingham, Mary Downing, J. F. Waller, D. F.
Book Reviews. 717
MacCarthy, W. C. Bennett, Chas. Mackay, Eliza Cook, Wm.
Howitt, Mary Howitt, Robt. Gilfillan, Chas. Swain, Thos.
Miller, Gerald Griffin, John Banim, Helen 8S. Gifford, T. De
McGee, Ingram, Thos. Davis, C.G. Duffy, John Keegan, Mrs.
Varian, Mrs. W. R. Wilde, J. C. Mangan, Wm. Thom, Robt.
Nicoll, Thos. Cooper, “Spartacus,” Ebenezer Jones, P. J. Bai-
ley, Alex. Smith, Gerald Massey, Geo. Macdonald, David Gray,
Patmore, Dobell, Robert Lyttoa, Fred. Tennyson, Chas. Ten-
nyson Turner, Edwin Arnold, Thos, Woolner, W. J. Linton,
Thos. Westwood, Geo. Meredeth, Thos. Ashe, Francis Mahoney,
Fred. Locker, C.S. Caberly, Austin Dobson, Sir John Bow-
ring, Theo. Martin, J. C. Wright, P.S. Worsley, F. W. New-
man, J. 8. Blackie, Lord Derby, E. C. Hawtrey, Jno. Coning-
ton, Anna Swanwick, Augusta Webster, M. P. Fitz-Gerald, Ros-
setti, Morris, Edw. Fitzgerald, Rev. John Chandler, J. M. Neale,
Edward Caswall, Horatius Bonar, F. W. Faber, Charlotte
Elliott, Christopher Wordsworth, A. P. Stanley, S. Baring-
Gould, E. H. Bickersteth, Catherine Winkworth, Frances E.
Cox, Jane Bothwick, Mrs. Eric B. Findlater, Edward Massie,
Jas. Ballentine, Alex. Maclagan, J. C. Shairp, Edwin Waugh,
Wm. Barnes, Jean Ingelow, Adelaide Proctor, Isa Craig, Chris-
tina E. Rossetti, Augusta Webster, Sebastian Evans, G. A. Sim-
cox, P. B. Marston, T. G. Hake, J, L. Warren, John Payne, A.
W. E. O’Shaugnessy, Théophile Marzials, Robert Browning,
Robert Buchanan, and Swinburne.
The basis of criticism is esthetic—that is the authors are tried
by the execution of their works and not by their personal bi-
ographies or moral influence, and no book yet published in
English displays a tithe of the critical power which marks Mr.
Stedman’s effort. Mr. Stedman understands the philosophic
principles of true criticism, and if it were only to hasten the
day of objective criticism, the book would be most welcome.
We may properly regard as.elements the rhetorical execution,
the practical success (as distinguished from the instrumentali-
ties of poetry), and nature and degree of the value of the work
to the thinker: but we err grievously and do bitter injustice
when we confound these tests or use one as the equivalent of
another.
In an article devoted to the subject of literary criticism (‘The
Western, August 1875.) an attempt was made to call attention
718 The Western.
to the state and needs of our present criticism, and now we have
the fulfillment of what was then but a hope. The excellent
criticisms of George S. Hillard, are unfortunately stated sub-
jectively: we know what he thinks, but do not know by what
standard he measures. Mr. Stedman on the contrary, shows us
the grounds of his faith, and pronounces judgment in view of
the rhetorical, artistic, and philosophic elements, and what is
more, he manages by his grace of style and personal enthusi-
asm to render popular a subject in itself best adapted to the
student. Doubtless Mr. Stedman’s reputation and social posi-
tion will give him the favorable notice of our leading reviews,
but if his work be judged upon its own merits it will be found
a rich addition to the library of the student. Most new books
are valuable as cunveniences rather than likely to be treasured
by the student. Mr. Stedman’s Victorian Poets and Swin-
burne’s Prose Essays are exceptional works, and should find a
place among the very few books (Liebig said nine,) that the
book-worn student reads beexuse he wishes rather than because
he must. [Eb.
THe Micur AND Mirtu or Lirsrature. A Treatise on Figu-
rative Language. John Walker Vilant Macbeth New
York: Harper & Brothers. 1875.
The author, in a volume of 582 pages, endeavors to develop
the resources of Rhetoric and use the literature of Great
Britain and America, for the purpose of illustration. Any one
familiar with the emptiness of even the most approved treatises
on Rhetoric will at once see that Mr. Macbeth has entered upon
a field which needed better cultivation, and any one who ex-
amines this book will be satisfied that the author has been suc-
cessful in the main object which he has sought. We welcome
the book, and believe that it will be found serviceable by any
who have occasion to study or to teach Rhetoric. The author’s
manner is somewhat too debonaire and jaunty; there is at
times seemingly a constrained levity not required for the best
interests of the book and apparently not congenial to the
writer. This does not impair the value of the work, and is al-
luded to only because it is a too common weakness upon the
part of able men who seek popular favor. The general tone of
the book is manly and digmfied and on that very account is
likely to make a lasting impression upon any who would ae-
Book Reviews." 719
quaint themselves with the subject treated. The subordinate
aim of incidentally teaching English Literature must be rathera
desire than a belief of the writer: much can be learned through
the book, but it would from its nature fail to take the place of
the ordinary “ Manual of Literature.” Of the author’s claim to
originality there need be no doubt; bat without sbaring his ex-
pressed surprise, we should feel that independent investigation
will always yield original results, and that so long as learners
are many and students are few, almost any student can make
discoveries even in departments where the number of laborers
has been legion. Any real student of Shakespeare can suggest
questions for which he can find in others no answer, and this
fact indicates that the gleanings may be richer than the original
harvest. Wedo not refer to this point from any spirit of cap-
tiousness, but because so long as we look upon work in any
department as done because great men have occupied them-
selves with it, we preclude the possibility of that extension of
which any realm is susceptible. It would be easy to suggest
many untouched subjects of investigation even in the case of
Shakespeare or the Bible. To conclude I should esteem this
work of Mr. Macbeth as a valuable addition to our instrumen-
talities, and should consider his undoubted success in the work
that really occupied his mind as not at all affected by the sub-
ordinate aims to which I have taken exception.—_[Eb.
OtiverR GoLpsMiTH’s SeLicTtED Porms. Edited by Wm. J.
Rolfe. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1875.
{Furnished for review by Gray, Baker & Co. ]
This is an attempt to supply in small compass and at small
price, the poems of Goldsmith—that is The Traveler, The De-
serted Village, and Retaliation. “The text is based upon Cun-
ningham’s after collation, with all other reputable texts; the
notes are rhetorical and historical, and seem likely to be useful
to the average reader: they also offer the history of each of
the poems. Prefixed to the volume are Macaulay’s essay on
Goldsmith, and selections from other memoirs, as Thackeray’s
English Humorists, George Colman’s Random Recollections,
Campbell’s Specimens of the British Poets, Forster’s Life of
Goldsmith, Irving’s Life of Goldsmith. To serve the purpose
of a text-book Goldsmith’s poems are manifestly superior to
;
H
i
=
a NA OE eee a ne
epee roperaners
‘
720 The Western.
Milton’s, and.in truth they are remarkably well-adapted to
such use. Wherever, then, there is any attention paid to the
analytical study of some single author, this book may present
itself for patronage, and as it is worthy it will most unquestion-
ably receive it.—[Epb.
Index of words explained: An, bleak, godspeed, tawdry,
methinks, decent, sidelony, truant, disaster, parlour, pomp.
A ConcorpANce To THE Works OF ALEXANDER Pope. By Ed-
win Abbott. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1875.
[Furnished for review by Gray, Baker & Co.
Few authors need the labor implied in the making of a con-
cordance: some like Shakespeare because no study however
minute, can be unprofitable; others because, as masters of lan-
guage, they are essential to any recital of the history of lan-
guage. Certainly a writer like Pope, resting no small part of
his reputation upon his felicity of diction, is specially likely to
serve the student of language whether his study have reference
to philology or to the acquisition of a good English vocabulary.
As Mr. Abbott remarks, modern English begins with Dryden,
and of all his successors none have been so felicitous as Pope.
In the preface the author calls attention to Pope’s peculiarities
in Spelling, Archaisms, the use of words, Idioms, Antithesis, me-
tre, and Alliteration. Following the preface is a table of exam-
ples of Irregular or Unusual Rhymes, in which reference is
made to the passages in which the rhymes occur. Until the
appearance of Ellis’ Early English Pronunciation even the ad-
vanced student was thrown upon his own resources when at-
tempting to weigh the metrical claims of any period in which
accentuation was other than his own: Ellis’ book is too costly
to be generally accessible, and Mr. Abbott’s book may be made
to reach the same end. Assuming that the author has as here-
tofore, been conscientious in his work, it is safe to say that any
student of language will be richer from a frequent reference to
the “ Concordance.”—{ Ep.
Caatrerton—a BioarapaicaLStupy. By Daniel Wilson. Lon-
don: Macmillan & Co., 1869.
While the old literary controversies excited by the Rowley
Letters, have lost interest except for antiquaries and vir-
tuosos, there is an indefinable fascination in the life of “the
Book Reviews. 721
marvelous boy” which lends an interest to every new essay
with Chatterton as its theme. Dr. Wilson’s “biographical
study” is written with an ease and simplicity well calculated
to excite the interest of the reader, while there is an absence of
the harsher features of controversy which are almost insepera-
ble from themes which are judged by the feelings. Certain it
is that while a few names hold their position without dispute,
the greater part of human success is so unsymmetrical as to
leave room for negative fault-finding. But so long as “the
strings and arrows of outrageous fortune” wound but do no
fatal injury, to the reputation of an author, we are urged by a
natural and rational impulse to seek the secret of the poet’s
strength. This bounding of a great man’s achievements is not
only necessary for our own intellectual aid, but it strengthens
all fairly-earned reputations by placing them upon foundations
which are imperishable because true.
Briefly stated the claims of Chatterton have been said to be:
“a power of picturesque painting, wonderful command of casy
language and lively, sportive allusion, compass of invention,
and a luxuriance of fancy.” While the volume of Chatterton’s
work is small, its quality justifies Wordsworth’s praise, and in-
terests us in the poet as well as in the phenomenon.—{ Eb.
A Ctass Book or Cuemistry, on the basis of the new system.
By Edward L. Youmans, M.D. New York, 1875: D. Apple-
ton & Co; C. E. Lane, agent, St. Louis.
The “ Class Book of Chemistry,” first published in 1852, was
re-written in 1863, and has now been revised to bring it into
harmony with the latest views and adapt it to present needs.
The addition before us contains 320 pages of print, including
200 illustrations, also an appendix of tables, a large body of ques-
tions for review, a glossary of technical words and proper
names, and an alphabetical index. The presentations of Chem-
istry proper is limited to about 200 pages, the latter three-fifths
of the work, the first part treating of Chemical Physics. The
statements and explanations given are necessarily brief but are
accurate and well expressed. We notice specially the presenta-
tion of the subject of Spectrum Analysis, which for an outline
is quite full, and singularly clear. The book evinces throughout
a careful preparation, and a clear discernment on the part of the
722 The Western.
author of the needs of a large class of students in and out of
school, who never expect to become practical chemists, but de-
sire an intelligent general knowledge of the science.
B. V. B. D.
Topp’s Inpex Rerum. Bridgman & Childs; Northampton,
Mass.
This is familiar to the students of fifteen years ago as a very
convenient commonplace book, It is so alphabetized as to
make reference more easy, and furnishes a quality of paper not
usually to be found in blank-books. Of the importance of a
commonplace book it would be unnecessary to speak, except for
the fact that the abuse of albums, diaries, and commonplace
books has naturally brought with it a disregard of what they
have of value, Every student suffers from forgetfulness, and
his neglect in recording what he learns causes him the loss of
much time and labor at a period when he is qualified to estimate
his loss and regret his folly. Every one who thinks or reads
gathers much that would be useful to himself and valuable to
others; while through neglect in recording his gains, his suc-
cessor has to struggle with the same initial embarrassments.
Certainly Todd’s Index Rerum needs no recommendation for
itself, as it enjoys a settled reputation.—Eb.
A Text Boox on Civit GoveRNMENT IN THE UNITED States.
By George H. Martin. A.S. Barnes & Co., New York, 1875.
If the object in teaching the Constitution of the United States
is to acquaint the pupil with its purport rather than with its
verbiage, then this book of Mr. Martin’s is vastly superior to its
predecessors, and indeed, well adapted to secure the end which
it puts before itself. The definitions are intelligible, clear and
exact; the reciprocal functions of the government and the gov-
erned are well stated; and the history of the development of
our present constitution is related in a form at once scientific
and calculated to interest the pupil. After several years’ ex-
perience as a teacher of this branch of study, I should without
hesitation, pronounce Mr. Martin’s book for the uses of the
school-room, far superior to Story’s or Townsend’s: the first of
which for many years served as the horn-book of all who
studied the Constitution; and the second of which succeeded to
the supremacy about 1867. In saying this I limit the use of the
Book Reviews. 723
book to our High Schools, Academies and Colleges, for itis hard-
ly adapted to use in our Common Schools with their present
course of study. The paper is fair, the type and general ap-
pearance, good. All teachers of the Constitution as well as
such students as lack time and opportunity for consulting more
numerous as well as more extended works, will find this work
a very valuable companion.—[Eb.
Keeret’s Frencu Series New York: Clark, Maynard & Co.
Text book in French.
This commences with the first principles, and while teaching
children the names of familiar objects requires them to form
words into sentences, thus utilizing their knowledge as soon as
acquired. It avoids the fault of most “French and English
Systems ”—that of constant repetition of the most uninteresting
phrases to the exclusion of others of greater ultimate import-
ance: at the same time words are brought before the mind of
the pupil with a frequency sufficient to ensure their being rec-
ollected. The fine illustrations of this volume will make it
none the less attractive to the child. Any child who has been
faithful in the use of this little book, will have acquired consid-
erable insight into the grammatical structure of French sen-
tences.
THe ELemMentary GRAMMAR.—This is intended for such as
have a fair acquaintance with the Grammar of their own lan-
guage, and aims to serve those who desire a rapid as well as
clear insight into the principles of FrenchGrammar. Each part
of speech is carefully considered, and particular stress is laid
upon such portions of French Grammar as prove most trouble-
some to foreigners: such topics, for example, as the irregular
verbs, and adjectives which change their signification with their
position; the exemplifications and exercises for practice are
such as to ensure a thorough understanding and readiness. A
marked feature is the classification of orthographic irregulari-
ties in the regular verbs.
THE ANALYTICAL AND PRAcTICAL GRAMMAR.—This is intended
for the advanced student, and offers aid both practical and the-
oretical : after a clear statement of principles and the rules de-
rivable from them, there follow oral exercises which illustrate
724 The Western.
and enforce these rules and principles. Even a hasty glance at
the book will convince one that Mr. Keetel has succeeded in
keeping his topic before the mind of the pupil, and in present-
ing it in forms so varied as to sustain an interest which gen-
erally lags when engaged in “ exercise work.” This opinion is
the result of a thorough examination, and is pronounced from
the standpoint of the practical teacher. M. T. 8.
Norse Myruotocy; Tae Reticion or our ForeraTHers Sys-
TEMATIZED AND INTERPRETED. R. B. ANDERSON, CHICAGO,
S. C. Greag & Co. 1875. ‘
This is a successful attempt to collect within the limits of one
book the results of many laborers and to add to the record of
Norse mythology the religious thought which it symbolizes.
The mythology of a people plays so important a part in lit-
erature that one cannot afford ignorance of at least its outlines,
and yet there seems to be a mistaken idea that what is first in
order of time is also first in order of importance ; this might
properly be termed the historical fallacy. Because crude thought
preceded clear thinking, it is not therefore preferable; because
the pioneer must precede the statesman his work is not therefore
more valuable; because material wants are felt before spiritual
ones they do not therefore excel the latter. This error lies at
the base of the extravagant claims of the special student, and
while he may for a time excite an abnormal interest in his work,
he willin the end receive a neglect proportioned to this excess
of admiration. Mr. Anderson does not escape this weakness
but wastes no small part of his effort in enforcing the supreme
elaims of the Norse as contrasted with the Greek and Latin,
and in proposing to estimate value by patriotism rather than by
intrinsic worth. If in future editions the author should omit
these parts of his work he would most undoubtedly find that he
had increased rather than diminished the circle of his admirers,
The parts of the book which confine themselves to Norse
Mythology are, as have been said, of great value and constitute
a valid claim upon the reader’s attention. The contents of the
book are as follows.
I. What is Mythology and what is Norse Mythology.
II. Why Norse Mythology? Ought it not rather to be called
Gothic or Teutonic ?
Book Reviews.
Ill. Norse Mythology compared with the Greek.
IV. Roman Mythology.
V. Interpretation of Norse Mythology.
VI. Norse Mythology furnishes abundant and excellent mate-
rial for the use of Poets, Sculptors, and Painters.
VII. Sourcesof the Norse Mythology, and Influence of the
Asa-Faith.
Norse Myrso.ocy Part I.
I. The Creation. II. The Preservation. III. Exegetical Re-
marks upon I. and II.
Part Il,
I. Odin. II. Hermod, Tyr, Heimdal, Brage, and
III. Balder, and Nanna, Hoder, Vale, and Forsete. 1V. Thor.
his wife Sif, and son Uller. V. Vidar. VI. The N. VII.
The Development of Evil, Loke and his Offspring.
Part III.
I, Ragnarok. II.Regeneration.
While we doubt not the value of these investigations inte
early beliefs, religious, linguistic, or historical, we see no rea-
son why any special student should by his method of treatment
alienate those who if they do not share his enthusiasm can at
least appreciate the value of any results that he may attain.
That the present activity inthe archaeology of language and
religion will yield lasting results, there can be no doubt, but that
the pre-historic will ever become the popular or that men will,
clothe themselves in the intellectual habilaments of times past
is not to be expected us it is certainly not to be desired,
First Book 1n ZooLocy By Epwarp. S. Morse PH. D.
New York 1875, D. AppLeTon anp Co.
C. E. Lang, acent, Sr. Louis.
The plan of this book 1s certainly an innovation. At the
outset, no mention whatever is made of the existence of a system
of classification, the pupil being directly introduced to the study of
animals themselves ; the details of structure are pointed out, and
explained and every encouragement given to promote the study
of their peculiarities as manifest in nature, rather than as they are
described in the book. Neitherthe lowest nor highest of An-
imal forms are introduced, the former because in most cases
they can be obtained or scen only with great difficulty, being
726 The Western.
mostly microscopic; the latter on account of their intricacy of
structure. A few groups, mainly of the Articulata and Mollus-
ea, constitute the subject matter treated. The chief intent of
the work is apparently to induce a careful analytical study of a
few simple and familiar forms, rather than to present a general
statement of the results of Zoological Scienc2. For this rea-
son it can never adequately fill the place of a text book for
pupils who without either the opportunity or desire to pur-
sue the subject in a thorough, experimental manner, nevertheless
wish to gain a general acquaintance with Zoology. Books
designed for special students and abounding in technical details
are not at all suited to the wants of general students. As an
introduction to a thorough course in Zoology and to the me-
thodical scientific study of nature this work may be freely rec.
ommended. It seeks to divest the pupil at the outset of all pre.
conceived notions of classification and to lead him through the
study of nature and natural objects to an intelligent accept-
ance of a scientificsystem, not dependent on authoritative state-
ment but existing asa recognized necessity.
(B. V. B. D.)
Noticeable Articles in Magazines and Re-
views.
Harpers, Nov. 1. Barry Cornwall and some of his Friends.
II. Recent French Caricature. III. Legislative Humors. IV.
The Modern Psyche.
Galary, Nov. The Two Ampéres. by H. James. Jr.
Littell’s Living Age, 1633-1634. Baxter.
1635. I. In a Studio. II. Torquato Tasso: Life and Works. III.
Some account of a German Boarding School. IV. Coleridge-
V. Chateaubriand. 1636. In My Study Chair.
Magazines and Reviews. 727
Blackwood’s Sept. A particularly interesting number. I. In
My Study Chair. II. In a Studio. III. Tennyson’s Queen Mary.
IV. Elegies.
Oct. I. Michael Angelo.
Nov. I. Michael Angelo.
Dublin University Review. Oct. E. A. Poe.
British Quarterly, Oct. I. Religious art. II. Poetry of Ten-
nyson. III. Isaac Casaubon.
St. James. Oct. E. B. Browning.
American Bibliopolist Aug. I. Comic Periodical Literature
of the U.S. IL. Libraries as Leaven. IIL. Nicholas Mueller, the
German Printer-Poet, IV. Obituaries: Andersen, Carnes,
Drake, Pugin, Remusat, Rich, Thompson, Upham. V. Life and
Writings of John Howard Payne. VI. Shakespearian Gossip :
“ Chewing the Cud,” “Cry Aim,’’ Felton Portrait of Shakes-
pear, Henry IV, Holme’s Authorship of Shakespeare, Jacox’s
Shakerpeare diversions, Knight’s Edition of Shakespere, Launce,
Lytle’s Antony and Cleopatra, New Shakespeare Society ,
Winsor’s Bibliography of the Folios and Quartos.
Fortnightly Review. Sept. I. Origin of Divine Myths in India.
II. Sophocles. III. Diderot.
National Qnarterly Review. Oct. 1. Lessons of a Hnndred
Years. II. Pre-historic Greece.
North American Review. Oct. I. Cuairnes’ Political Economy
II. The Two Amperes. III. Sherman’s Memories.
St. Nicholas. Nov. The list of contributors ensures good work .
Lucy Larcom, Celia Thaxter, Harriet Prescott Shafford, Donald
G. Mitchell, J. T. Trowbridge, and Christina G. Rossetti. are a
suffic'ent endorsement for the character of the work. The more
noticeble articles are I. Penelope Boothby,(a story of Sir Joshua
Reynolds.) Il. Hans Christian Andersen: a Poem, III. Arnold
and his Violin. 1V. How Plants come from Seed. V. The Re-
former:a Poem. VI. Postage Stamp Collecting.
Bulletin de la Société Franklin, Paris, Oct. Offers 40 pp, of books
suitable for acity library. and will be found serviceable to all
interested in libraries.
,
728 The Western.
Books Added to Public School Library.
POPULAR LITERATURE,
FICTION,
Aidé. A Nine Day,s Wonder.
Ames. His Two Wives.
Bérnstein. Geheimnisse von St. Louis.
Bronté. Jane Eyre.
Church. Open! Sesame!
Clayton’s Rangers.
Edwards. Estelle.
Edwards. Leah: a Woman of Fashion.
Fleming. Norine’s Revenge.
Gaborian. The Widow Lerouge.
Healey.
Holland. Sevenoaks.
Johnny Ludlow.
Katsch. Under the Stork’s Nest.
Marryat. Olla Podrida.
Marryat. Valerie.
Oliphant. A Rose in June.
Roe. From Jest to Earnest.
Roe. Opening of a Chestnut Burr.
Tabor. Hope Meredith.
Warfield. Hester Howard’s Temptation
MISCELLANEOUS.
Burnand. Happy Thoughts.
e More Happy Thoughts.
a Happy, Thoughts Hall.
“ My Health.
Coates. Best Authors in Prose and Poetry.
Gautier. Constantinople.
Gilbert. The “ Bab” Ballads.
Goldsmith. Select Poems.
Haven. Our Next-Door Neigbbor: Mexico.
“Johnson. Little Classics. Vol. 15. Minor Poems.
Books Added to Public School Library. 729
Miller. The Ship in the Desert.
Ruskin. Froudes Agrestes.
Southworth. Four thousand Miles of African Travels.
Spurgeon. Lectures to my Students.
Stoddard. Treasure Trove Series. Vol. 2. Travesty.
Taine. Notes on Paris.
Thackeray. Thackerayana.
Webber. Wild Scenes and Wild Hunters,
Wilson. The Abode of Snow.
JUVENILE.
Alcott. Eight Cousins.
Barker. Boys.
Barker. Little Wide-Awake.
Coolidge. Nine Goslings.
D’Aulnoy. Fairy Tales.
Doings of the Bodley Family in Town and alec
Fairy Bells, and what they told us.
Little Prattler.
Little Rattler.
Lowell. Antony Brade.
Moulton. Bed-Time Stories.
Perrault. Fairy Tales.
Routledge’s Every Boy’s Annual, 1876.
Thorne. Jolly Good Times.
Verne. Captain Hatteras.
SCIENCE.
History, &&., &c.
Abbott. Concordance to the works of Alex. Pope
Allibone. Prose Quotations.
Bauduy. Diseases of the Nervous System.
Best Reading, The.
Cambridge Classical Examinations.
Cooke, Fungi.
Croll. Climate and Time.
Dadd. American Reformed Horse-Book.
Darby. Two Thousand Years After.
Forbes. Transit of Venus.
Grimes. Mysteries of the Head and the Heart explained.
Holyoake. Cooperation in England. Vol. I.
730 The Western.
King. The Great South.
Latouche. Travels in Portugal.
Marryat. Mons. Violet.
Kingston. The Western World,
Laugl. . Modern Art Education.
Lee ,Gen. Robert E. Life by Edw. Childe.
Lompriere. Classical Dictionary.
Lubbock. British Wild Flowers considered in relation to In-
sects.
Macbeth. Might and Mirth of Literature.
Macready’s Reminiscences.
Merivale. General History of Rome. B.C. 753—A. D. 476
Miller. In the Kitchen.
Mivart. The Common Frog.
New Letter-Writer.
Quinby. On Bee-Keeping.
Récamiere, Mme., and her Friends.
Rodwell. The Birth of Christianity.
Sancho Panza’s Proverbs.
Schiller. Essays Aesthetical and Philosophical.
Schlossen. History of the Eighteenth Century.
Summers. Chinese Grammer.
Ten Brook. American State Universities.
Thomson. Scripture Geography,
Unseen Universe, The.
Vaux. Persia.
Viollet-L-Duc. Annals oi a Fortress.
Vogel. Chemistry of Light and Photography.
Youatt. On the management of Sheep.
The Advertiser.
THE NATIONAL SERIES.
HIS SERIES, numbering nearly 400 volumes, is the most extensive, the most
complete in every branch of instruction, the most uniformly excellent, and
the most universally popular Series of School and College Text-Books ever issued
by a single publishing house. It includes among others the following :
Standard Books of National Series. | Newest Books of National Series.
Parker & Watson’s National Readers. | Watson’s Independent Readers.
Parker & Watson's National Spellers. | Watson’s Independent Spellers.
Monteith & McNally’s Geographies | Monteith’s Independent Geography.
Davies’ Complete Mathematics, | Peck’s Short Arithmetics.
Clark’s English Grammars | Clark’s Brief, and Normal Grammar.
Emma Wiliard’s Histories. | Barnes’s Brief History of the United States.
Beer's Round-hand Penmanship Steele’s 14 \ eeks Course in each Science,
Peck’s Ganot’s Philosophy. Wood's Botanist and Florist.
—* Physiology and Laws of Health Peabody’s Moral Philosophy.
‘orter’s Chemistries . Worman’s French Echo.
W ood’s Botanies. Worman’s German Series.
Cleveland’s Compendiums of Literature Searing’s Virgil’s A2ncid
Pujol’s French Course. ; Jepson's Music Keaders.
Chapman's American Drawing. ' Folsom’s Logical Book-keeping.
The whole crowned by the unique“collection of professional manuals known as
——_-
THE NATIONAL ‘TEACHERS’ LIBRARY,
In 30 volumes, headed by Page’s ‘‘Theory and Practice of Teaching.”
A Descxiptive CATALOGUE AND Price List of all A. 8. Barnes & Co.’s Publications will
be sent free to the address of any Teacher or School Officer applying for it.
The ‘*NatronaL Teacuers’ Montuty” commands in its editor and contributors the best
professional talent the Country affords. Subscription, $1.00 per annum
A. S. BARNES & CO., Educational Publishers,
111 &113 William St., - 113 & 115 State 8t., 112 Camp Street,
_NEW YORK. CHICAGO. NEW ORLEANS.
~New Books Just Published :
RVEY'S LANGUAGE LESSONS.
First Lessons in the Englith Language, by Thomas W. Harvey, M. A., Author of Ele-
mentary Grammar and Practical Grammar of the English Language, and of the
Graded School Readers, 12mo. 80 pp. Illustrated. Price 30 cents. Single sample
copies and Supplies for the first introduction, 22 cents; supplies for introduction in ex-
change for other corresponding booksin use, 15 cents per copy.
THALHEIMER' HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
A History of England for che use of Schools, by M. £. Thaiheimer, Author of Ancient and
Medizval and Modern History, 12mo. 288 pp. Illustrated. g1.50. Suppliies for first
introduction and sing'e sample copies for examination with a view to first introduction,
$t 15 per copy.
RAY’S DIFFERENTIAL AND INTEGRAL CALCULUS.
Jiements of the Infimiesimal Caiculus, with numerous kxamples and Applications to Analy-
sis and Geometry, by James G. Clark, A. M., Professor of William Jewell College. 8vo.
sheep, 440 pp. $2.25. Supplies for first introduction, and single sample copies for exam-
ination with a view to first introduction, $1.60 per copy.
SCHUYLER'S TRIGONOMETRY ard MENSURATION
lane and Spherical I rigonometry end Mensuration, by A Schuyler, L. L_D_, Professor of
applied Mathematics anil Logic in Baldwin University. Author of Prineiples of Logic,
Complete Algebra, and Surveying and Navigation, 8vo. cloth, 184 pp. and Logarithmic
Tables. $1.c0. Supplies for first introduction, and single sample copies for examination
with a view to first introduction, $1.13.
HEPBURN'S ENGLISH RHETORIC,
Manual of English Rhetoric, designed for the use of classes in High Schools and Colleges,
by A. D. Hepburn, Professor in Davidson College, N. C. 12mo. cloth, 280 pp., $1 25.
Single sample copier and supplies for first introduction, 94 cents; for introduction in ex=
change for other cor . esponding books in use, 63 cents,
SEND FOR DESCRIPTIVE CIRCULARS.
WILSON, HINKLE & CO., Publishers, Cincinnati & New York.
THE JOURNAL
Speculative Philosophy
FOR 1875.
INCREASED IN SIZE,
PRICE THREE DOLLARS PER ANNUM.
SINGLE NUMBER 75 CTS.
This Journal is Published Quarterly in St. Louis; Mo.
It is intended as a vehicle for such translations, commentaries, and original
articles, as will best promote the interests of Speculative Philosophy in all its
departments.
_—_ —
TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION.
Three dollars per annum ; single number, 75 cents,
The eight volumes already published can be obtained of the Editor at $2 per
volume in numbers, or $3 per volume bound in muslin. In order to be able to
supply all orders, the first, second and fourteenth numbers have been reprinted,
Vols. I & II, bound in one volume in muslin, will be sent postpaid by mail, for $5.
Vol. III, Vol. 1V, Vol. V, Vol. VI, Vol. VIf, Vol. VIII, in muslin, $3.60
each. Back volumes (unbound) may be had at $2.00 per volume.
A set of the JOURNAL constitutes in some measure a Library of Philosophy
in itself,
Translations from Leibnitz, Descartes, Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, Goeffie,
Rosenkranz, Winckelmann, Schopenhauer, Michelet, Von Hartmann, Herder,
Trendelenburg, Trentowski, Herbart, Lotze, and others have been published.
The following Works, reprinted from the JouRNAL, are for sale at the prices
affixed (prepaid by mail):
Hxcew’s First PRINcIPve, translated and accompanied with Introduction
and Explanatory Notes by Wm. T. Harris,,........cccccscssssssesccecesensees $0.25
ROSENKRANZ’S PEDAGOGICS AS A SYSTEM, OR THE PHILOSUPHY OF Epv-
CATION, translated by Anna C. Brackett,,........Paper, $1.00; Muslin,
Four LECTURES ON THE PHILOsopHy oF Law, by J. Hutchison Stirling,
LiaD,, auther. of The Sreret of Hegel. acisesscesesece sorncseve aeevee sovces =
INTRODUCTION TO SPECULATIVE PHILOSOPHY AND Locic, by A. Vera,
Professor of Philoscphy in the University of Naples,....
1.50
-50
Address,
WM. T. HARRIS,
(Box 2398.) ST. LOUIS, MO.