aspect of a science. The Greek and In- do the most useful, and seemingly the most dian pantheism is a vague, fanciful doc- obvious arts, make their way among mantrine, carrying with it no scientific convic- kind." tion; it may be true-it looks true-but This pleasant satire points to a great the proof is wanting. But with Spinoza truth. We might have gone on baffled, there is no choice: if you understand his yet persisting, seeking the unknowable, terins, admit the possibility of his science, and seize his meaning, you can no more doubt his conclusions than you can doubt Euclid; no mere opinion is possible, conviction only is possible. and building palaces on air, “miracles of rare delight," but uninhabitable, untenable-had not a Bacon, answering the imperious wants of his age, arisen to point out that the method men were pursuing was no path of transit to the truth, but led only to the land of chimeras. Bacon, we say, energetically denounced all existing methods, and pointed out a new one, such as Time alone could appreciate. With how noble confidence does he rely upon the Future! and how gloriously that Future has filled the measure of his prophecies! Did, then, Philosophy stop with Spinoza? did it either accept his conclusions, or reexamine their foundations? No: it is one of the sad conditions of metaphysics (or rather of ontology) to have no rest, no repose. Age rolls over age as the wave follows its brother, and each casts upon the shore its glittering foam; only foam, alas! and scattered by the next breeze; dazzling, But humanity could not at once relinbewitching, evanescent. It is one of the quish its habits, and with the great Leibnitz curious points in the history of humanity, at its head again endeavored to prove the that methods are so seldom altered. Each secret of the world. Leibnitz, who refused man follows his father, and endeavors to to acknowledge Spinoza, never doubted the succeed where generations have failed; efficiency of his method; he went on he never once suspects the nature of the "burning down his house" after his own method he employs that he takes for magnificent fashion, and never questioned granted; yet, in most cases, it is precisely its success. What were the results? We there that the cause of failure lies. This speak not of his mathematical genius, but explains the slowness of inventions, and of his ontological discoveries. The results the repugnance to novel methods; what were his famous monadologie, and his still has been tried must be the right. When more famous pre-established harmony: Bo-bo discovered the virtues of roast pig, wonderful conceptions, no doubt, but barby the accidental burning of his house, ac- ren as the east wind. These he transmitted cording to that charming philosopher Elia, to Wolff. Kant demolished them, and the only way he could think of again pro- established Spinoza's notion respecting curing the luxury, was by again burning down his house. "It was observed that Ho-ti's cottage was burned down now more frequently than ever." The secret got abroad; every one was anxious to have his roast pig; and "now there was nothing but fires to be seen in every direction. Fuel and pigs grew enormously dear all over the district. The insurance offices one and all shut up shop. People built slighter and slighter every day, until it was feared that the very science of architecture would in no long time be lost to the world. Thus, this custom of firing houses continued till, in the process of time (says my manuscript), a sage arose like our Locke, who made a discovery that the flesh of swine, or indeed, of any other animal, might be cooked (burnt as they called it) without the necessity of consuming a whole house to dress it. Then first began the rude form of a gridiron. Roasting by the string or spit came in a century or two later, I forget in whose dynasty. By such slow degrees (concludes the manuscript) | space and time, as forms of the mind. Fichte followed with his idealistic Spinozism, as he himself calls it, to prove that there is "ursprünglich nur eine Substanz, das Ich; in dieser einen Substanz sind alle möglichen Accidenzen, also alle möglichen Realitäten gesetzt." Then came Schelling, whose philosophy is saturated with Spinozism, and from which it will only be necessary to notice two or three fundamental positions, to see how perfectly they agree with those of the Ethica: "Gott is das einzig Reale, ausserdem es schlechterdings kein Seyn giebt. Was also existirt, existirt mit Gott, und was ist, ist dem Wesen nach, ihm gleich." Compare Spinoza, Def. vi. and Prop. xv.-" Quicquid est in Deo est et nihil sine Deo esse nec concepi potest." Again,-"Gott ist nicht das Höchste, sondern er ist das schlechtin Eine; er ist nicht anzuschauen als Gipfel oder Ende, sondern als Centrum, nicht im Gegensatz einer Peripherie, sondern als * "Essays of Elia :" Dissertation upon Roast Pig. This audacious speculation Strauss first Alles in Allem."-Spinoza, passim. Again, "Gott enthält die möglichkeit seines made the ground of a serious schism; its Seyns in sich selbst."-Spinoza, Prop. vi.; wants of philosophical fundus, however, Coroll. ii. ; and Def. i. and iii. The position sufficiently guards us from its reception of Spinoza, that the universe is but the here. England can well afford to bear the aspect of God, considered under his infi- sneers of Germany and France at her innite attribute of extension, is thus stated capacity for metaphysical speculation, when by Schelling" Die Unendlichkeit ist she contemplates the results of that specuGott, angeschaut von Seite seines Affirmirt- lation in the works of modern metaphysiSeyns." Respecting the impersonality of cians. The strong practical sense of our the human mind, and its dependence on the countrymen revolts at the curious subtleties universal mind, Spinoza writes,-" Hinc and cobwebs so indefatigably produced by sequitur mentem humanam partem esse the arachnæ philosophers of Germany; and infiniti intellectus Dei; ac proinde cum di- though revolting more from instinct than cimus mentem humanam hoc, vel illud per- from a clear vision into the causes of metacipere, aliud nihil dicimus, quàm quòd physical impossibilities, yet the instinct is Deus, non quatenus infinitus est sed qua- a happy one. Foreigners accuse us, and lenus per naturam humanæ mentis expli- accuse us justly, of a want of appreciation of catur, sive quatenus humanæ mentis essen- generalities—a want of the true philosophical tiam constituit, hanc vel illam habet ideam." faculty of generalization: but this accusa(Ethice, pars. ii. prop. xi. coroll.) Schel- tion is by them coupled with an artifice of ling, precisely to the same effect, says, which they are unconscious. We are averse "Das Denken ist nicht mein Denken, und to generalization, but it does not follow that das Seyn nicht mein Seyn; denn Alles ist those who are fond of it manifest a greater nur Gottes oder des Alles. Ueberhaupt aptitude for philosophy because they apply gibt es nicht eine Vernunft, die wir hätten, it to metaphysics-on the contrary, such sondern nur eine Vernunft, die uns hat." an application is in itself eminently unphi(Jahrbücher der Medicin, bd. i. p. 13.) We losophical in the present state of the human have dragged these fundamental notions mind. They, however, couple the subjects forward to show how, in spite of different of metaphysics with the powers of generaterminology, and a more enthusiastic poet- lization, and fancy that the one includes ical manner, Schelling is the same as Spi- and presupposes the other, so that those noza in his philosophy; he is far less rigo- who are not metaphysicians are averse to rous and scientific in his method. Hegel's generalities. But in truth it is our weakmind was more akin to Spinoza's than any ness that we do not comprehend the imof the others, and accordingly, in his writ-portance of generalities, and it is our ings we still more distinctly trace the in- strength that we reject as frivolous all mefluence of the Ethica, disguised under taphysics. pedantic terminologies, and useless distinctions. It may be curious here to quote Spinoza's anticipation of the Hegelian Christology, which, in the hands of Strauss, Feuerbach, and Bruno Baur, has made so much noise in the theological world :-"1 tell you," says Spinoza, in his letter to Oldenburg, "that it is not necessary for your salvation that you should believe in Christ according to the flesh; but of that eternal Son of God, i. e. the eternal wisdom of God, which is manifested in all things, but mostly in the human mind, and most of all in Jesus Christ; a very different conception must be formed." "Dico ad salutem non esse omninò necesse, Christum secundùm carnem noscere, sed de æterno illo filio Dei, hoc est, Dei æternâ sapientiâ, quæ sese in omnibus rebus, et maximè in mente humanâ et omnium maximè in Christo Jesu manifestavit, longè aliter sentiendum."* Opera Posthuma," p. 450. The deplorable paradoxes and absurdities into which the modern thinkers have been led, are owing to the vicious method which they follow, and which we have above combated. In Spinoza's time this Method was the only one which with his education he could adopt. In Spinoza Ontology reached its consummation; it remained for posterity to apply this doctrine to every special case, or else to re-examine its foundations to see if they were sound. Posterity did neither of these (with the exception of an insignificant number of Baconian thinkers), and the progress of humanity has been sensibly retarded in consequence. Such was Benedict Spinoza-thus he lived and thought. A brave and simple man, earnestly meditating on the deepest subjects that can occupy the human race, he produced a system which will ever remain as one of the most astounding efforts of abstract speculation; a system that has been decried for nearly two centuries, as HER CHILD'S DEATH. BY WILLIAM JONES. From Bentley's Miscellany. 1 "Bring ine flowers all young and sweet, My beautiful! 'tis now a year the most iniquitous and blasphemous of THE MOTHER ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF human invention; and which has now, within the last sixty years, become the acknowledged parent of a whole nation's phi losophy, ranking among its admirers some of the most pious and illustrious intellects of the age. The ribald Atheist turns out, on nearer acquaintance, to be a "God-intoxicated man.' The blasphemous Jew, becomes a pious, virtuous, and creative thinker. The dissolute Heretic becomes a child-like, simple, self-denying and heroic man. We look into his works with calm earnestness, and read there another curious page of human history: the majestic struggle with the mysteries of existence has failed, as it always must fail; but the struggle demands our warmest admiration, and the man our ardent sympathy. Spinoza stands out from the dim past like a tall beacon, whose shadow is thrown athwart the sea, and whose light will serve to warn the wanderers from the shoals and rocks on which hundreds of their brethren have perished. G. H. L. Since thou wert laid beneath the sod, A year ago! thou then hadst life, A year ago! It seems a day Šince last I gazed upon thy face; I sought thy future weal to trace. No more the light of hope doth shine, A year ago! thy happy smile Dispell'd the cares that oft oppress, In word or look-I am bereft! A year ago! light laughter broke The gloomy stillness of these walls; Save when the winds at times grow wild, A year ago! on this sad day The spoiler dimm'd those eyes of blue, Still lovely e'en in deathly hue! Lifeless, within the earth's chill breast, My beautiful! whom still I love, Who only took the flow'r he gave! SHORT RIDES IN AN AUTHOR'S OMNIBUS. From the New Monthly Magazine. MAN A MICROCOSM. "Ir is worthy of remark," says Vico (in the "Scienza Nuova"). "that in all languages, the greater part of the expressions relative to inanimate things are either derived by metaphor from different parts of the human body, or from human sentiments and passions. Hence the word head for summit or commencement-mouth for any opening the teeth of a plough, of a rake, of a saw, of a comb-a tongue of land-the gorge of a mountain-a handful for a small number-the arm of a river-the heart for the centre--the veins of a mine--the bowels of the earth--the flesh of a fruit-the whistling of the wind-the murmur of the waves--the groaning of any object beneath a great weight." When the late Lord Erskine, then going the circuit, was asked by his landlord how he had slept, he replied, "Union is strength, a fact of which some of your inmates seem to be unaware; for had the fleas been unanimous last night, they might have pushed me out of bed." "Fleas!" exclaimed Boniface, affecting great astonishment, "I was not aware that I had a single one in the house." "I don't believe you have," retorted his lordship, "they are all married, and have uncommonly large families." STATE PYRAMIDS. "It may be taken as a governing principle in all civil relations, that the strong and the rich will continue to grow stronger and richer, and the feeble and the poor more weak and impoverished, until the first become unfit to rule, or the last unable any longer to endure. This is the secret of the downfall of all states that have crumbled beneath their own abuses, and hence the necessity of widening the foundations of so The Romans used the phrases "sitire agros, laborare fructus, luxuriari segetes" and the Italians say, "andar in amore le piante, andar in pazzia le viti--lagrimare gli orni ;" while they apply to inanimate objects the words,ciety, according to the increased weight that "fronte, spalle, occhi, barbe, collo, gamba, piede, pianta." they are required to support. A pyramid, surmounted with a statue, whether crowned or not, should be the emblem of a commonwealth.” We have already said that ignorant man takes himself for the rule of the universe: in the above Despotic states resemble a pyramid reversed, examples, he makes an entire world of himself which the weakest assault may topple down: Man, in fact, transforms himself into all objects and few things are more weak, notwithstanding both by intelligence, and by the want of intelli-its apparent strength, than absolute power. It gence; and perhaps the second axiom is more true than the first, since in the exercise of his understanding he stretches his mind to reach and embrace objects; whereas, in the privation of intelligence, he makes all these objects out of himself. Hence the received notion that man is a microcosm or little world, and that the body natural may be compared to the body politic. Nor have we been content with fashioning an outward world from our inward one; but as God made man in his own image, so have certain fanatical men presumed to create a Deity after their own form and fashion, which is generally the worst they could have selected. Every one is more or less a little world to himself; and in this fusion, or confusion of the outward and visible with the inward and spiritual, most people are apt to identify themselves with external objects, especially if they bear reference to their own immediate habits, callings, or productions; a natural tendency which receives illustration from the beggar, recorded by Matthews, who hobbled about the streets, exclaiming, "Please to buy a penn'orth of matches of a poor old man all made of dry wood." FLEAS. has no supporters, no defence-for the tyrant is ever without friends-and he who has no law for others, cannot expect any for himself. Hence the tyrannicide among the ancients was always honored as a patriot. The modern civilized world is perhaps less governed by constitutions and ministers than by public opinion, which a free press, where it exists, soon elevates into a species of omnipotence. If, therefore, there be any truth in the dictum that the vox populi is the vox Dei, the enlightened European states, so far as they are self-governed, are religiously governed, and approximate to the condition of the Jewish theocracy before the time of Saul. HOPE. mined by that which feeds it-or like a butterfly, Hope is like a poplar beside a river-undercrushed by being caught-or like a fox-chase, of which the pleasure is in the pursuit—or like revenge, which is generally converted into disappointinent or remorse as soon as it is accomplished-or like a will-o'-the-wisp, in running after which, through pools and puddles, you are not likely to catch any thing-but a cold. A PUZZLING QUESTION. Rousseau asks his humane, moral, and enlightA chatterbox ran about the town of Bath, ened reader, what he would do if he could enwarning his friends against ever sleeping at the rich himself, without moving from Paris, by Golden Lion, where he had been most griev-signing the death-warrant of an innocent old ously bitten by fleas. "You remind me," said one of the parties thus addressed, "of the punishment threatened by Horace to the man who should attack him, "Fle-bit, et insignis totâ cantabitur urbe." Mandarin of China? A conscientious French man might urge that we have no right to do wrong in order that good may come of it; but he would at the same time moot the question, whether it be wrong to put an old Mandarin out of his misery, taking it for granted, that he must TO-DAYA HINT FOR A SERMON. be in a wretched state of health from the inor-1 and immortalize him by publishing it in the New dinate use of opium, supplied to him by the un- Monthly Magazine. feeling and unprincipled English. And the pious Gaul would further argue, that, though it would be scandalous to procure the death of a fellow-creature to enrich himself, he was bound, as a father, to consult the interests of his children; whereupon a tear of parental love would start into his eye, and he would sign the death-placed out at compound interest at the birth of Christ. Were such a penny-turning penny in warrant with a sentimental ejaculation. existence, and able to tell its own tale, it would Had the same question been propounded to a plain English John Bull, during the late war with the Celestial Empire, he would probably exclaim, "What! have I not always been taught to make money--honestly if I could--but at all events to make money-and are not the Chinese our enemies, whom we are bound to destroy by every means in our power?" "True," might be rejoined; "but this poor old Mandarin is a non-combatant; he has never done you any harm, and it would hardly be in conformity with the laws of religion and humanity to put him to death for nothing." calculators as to what four farthings would by Marvellous are the statements put forth by this time have accomplished, had they been Make his chronicle as rich with prize, With sunken wreck and sumless treasuries. A rolling stone, we are told, gathers no moss, and in the case of Sysiphus, we know the assertion to be true; but this ever-turning penny, if Cocker be trustworthy, would, at this our present Anno Domini, almost suffice to purchase our habitable globe, even were it composed "of one entire and perfect chrysolite"-a fact of which I have no more doubt, than had Pitt of the efficacy of his sinking fund to annihilate the national debt "But," retorts John Bull, "it would be in per- in a few years! But although we have no mefect conformity with the laws of war. Besides, tallic evidence of the miracles that may be acI don't put him to death for nothing. I should complished by the accumulation of money, we scorn such a mean and cruel act-I do it to en-have present and tangible proof of the wonders rich myself. Had I been but a physician, I might have done the same towards scores of my fellow-country men, only the warrant would have been written in Latin--so give me the pen." Let us suppose one of that daily-increasing class, the Doctor Cantwells, to be placed in the same predicament. that may be wrought by the aggregation of Time; for that most marvellous of all prodigies To-DAY-is the astounding result of the one single day of the Creation, with its compound interest for six thousand years. This most imperial TO-DAY, therefore, is seated on the throne built up by two million one "Though we are at war with the Chinese," hundred-and-ninety thousand days, and makes would he meekly remark, "no consideration its footstool of twenty-four times as many hours! should induce me to sign this poor man's death Acting as the faithful subjects and indefatigable warrant, especially for my own interest, for we subjects of TO-DAY, the countless myriads of the are commanded to forgive our enemies. But past generations have exterminated monsters, we are nowhere commanded to forgive the ene-diminished the races of wild beasts and savages, mies of the Lord; and as this miserable sinner is a heathen, and it may be for the interest of the true religion that he should be swept from the face of the earth, I deem it my bounden duty, however painful to my feelings, to give my hum-living successors. ble subscription to this heavenly order." have advanced civilization, improved the fertility of the earth, conquered the elements, and ministered in ten thousand different ways to the physical security, comfort, and happiness of their And yet all that God has done for man, and Which having done, and invested the blood-man for himself in a material sense, during these money in land or government securities, he would make donations to half a dozen charitable or religious societies, would call (in his own carriage) upon some polemical Boanerges, and if, as they drove towards Exeter Hall, they chanced to pass some good and kind-hearted, and really religious man who was no pharisee, our Doctor Cantwell would turn to his companion, and exclaim with a look and a sneer of sanctimony - "I thank God that I am not as yonder publican." Let us imagine the same startling question submitted to the decision of a poor devil of an author. "How-what!" he would exclaim--" get suddenly rich by my own writing, and none of the money to go to the publisher? Done--done! Where's the pen and ink, where's the paper? As to the Mandarin, he need not shake his gory locks at me. The day of his death shall be the happiest of his life, for I'll write his Epicedium, six thousand years, fades into insignificance compared with the inappreciable moral legacies which the past has bequeathed to the present. All the wisdom, experience, investigation, discoveries, inventions, improvements, of sixty centuries, each adding by compound interest to the treasures it had inherited, are the free, absolute, inalienable property of TO-DAY-not entailed to any individual heir-not restricted to any favored class, but scattering their precious benefits by the diffusion of intelligence in all directions, upon the poor as well as the rich, the peasant as well as the prince. Truly, all those who by living TO-DAY have become the heirs of the past, have succeeded to a splendid patrimony! Let their gratitude be proportioned to their good fortune, especially when they reflect that they pay no legacy-duty nor income-tax on this magnificent bequest. And yet their destiny and position are much less majestical as children of the past, than as the parents of the future; for they have only six |