tTif'l
Hesperian Student.
VOL. -I, ,
ocTonLit,
University or Nebraska.
rco s
Qui Jionri'oilolt.lcilolt.
1875.
Tin
influence of Metaphysical
Speculation.
The opinion, prevails extensively thai
questions of abstract thought arc so re
mole from thu uses of our daily life that
tlicy may be safely dismissed from serious
consideration, or handed over for investi
gation to men who have leisure for suuh
trifle-. .Most of these questions, it is
pliUMbly maintained, cannot bo deter
mined with certainly, and in the hurry
ami bustling excitements of practical af
fairs, It would be folly to give time mid
labor to the study of questions which
yield such small results, and which after
all cannot bo satisfactorily settled.
It is also alleged, that such subjects have
been violently contrdfrcrtcd.hnvo originat
ed diverse schools of thought, have en
gendered animosities, and created sects
ready to enforce their opinions by the
poorest of all arguments, an appeal to
force, the ultima ratio reyuin. Hence it is
argued that all philosophizing on ques
tions that cannot be determined experi
mentally should be discouraged, and men
should betake themselves to studies and
pursuits which have u practical ami ap-
pieciable bearing on human progress and
happiness.
It is our purpose to show by example
chiefly, how some of the most abstract and
recondite principles become both practi
cal and enicient in moulding society, and
that the investigation of them cannot be
safely left to shallow sciolists, and super
ficial inquirers into the laws of matter or
of mind.
It has been but a fuw years since all
motion in our solar system has been re
ferred to one genetic source, the sun,
which operating in Innumerable ways, be
comes mediately or immediately the cause
ol all physical changes. So a single prin-
ciple discovered in the realm of abstract
thought often becomes the moving energy
of intellectual and social chnnges, which
entirely transfigure the face of human af
fairs. Men decry and disparage these subtle,
transforming inlluences, because they are
unable to trace their effects, or to grasp
them in their operatic::.
Xc temple, whether built on mount
Zioii, or in the enduring structmes of hu
man institutions, was ever framed aright
which viw not first devised in the ideal
chambers of the brain. Wo arc all castle
builder, by a necessity of our being; and
little will that system be worth whose uni-
0', harmony, coherence and proportion
lix.i not been idealized by the creative
fiierir'C'H of mind.
For our first illustration of the influence
of metaphysical speculation, let us take
the doctrine of the Origin of Ideas. To
a superficial thinker it may seem of small
consequence how we explain the origin of
ideas, but when considered historically it
will bj found to be u vital question.
About two hundred years ago, John
Wko attempted to prove that all our.
idcas.have their origin in sensation and
and argument to overthrow the prevailing
notions respecting innate ideas. His
work had a powerful client on the English
mind, and soon found Its way to the Con
tinent. Condillac ni Franco accepted one
half ol Locke's theory, and sought to
prove that all our ideas are derived from
sensations. According to this philosophy,
a man can know nothing except by ini
pressions received from external nature.
Memory, attention, conscience, and all the
faculties were transformed sensations.
The elleet of this system, clear and com
prehensible on account of its shallowness,
was immense. Physical investigation,
under its stimulus, was greatly promoted,
and the morals and politics of France
wero revolutionized. This doctrine, ap
parently so harmless, was essentially a
revolutionary one.
For if the senses are the only medium
of idea, then there is no knowledge pos
sible except by contact with Nature
around u, and from its interpretations by
the senses. Hence material Nature is all
that can be known to us, and it is irralion
al to look for anything beyond Nature.
By such irresistible logic, all certitude
was denied to every spiritual idea, or con
ception of the divine.
It is historically true that during this
period, some of the most remarkable dis
coveries wero made in the physical sci-
the
eight-
ences. The extraordinary devotion of
scientists to the interrogation of nature
during the last haU)of the eighteenth ecu-
lury, gave an impulse to this class of dis
coveries, the effects of which are felt to
the present time.
But in the realm of morals and of poli
tics tiic inilucuco of this philosophy was
not equally beneficent. It became in fact
a deadly Upas, blighting all within the
reach of its pestiferous exhalations. It
was during this period also that the gre.il
High Priests of immorality and irreligion
appeared in France, and whoso chief fimc
tion seemed to be to guillotine their fol
lowers. Adopting the philosophy of sensation,
as it was called, they wore led to teat every
idea of virtue and morality by its relation
to the bcnscs, and with thorn all morality
consisted in the conformity of actions to
the demands of sense; and to fatich
a pitch did this philosophical ex
travaganco rise, that one of the
most eminent writers of this
school ventures to assort, "that the pas
sions are superior to the intellect, undone
becomes stunJd when ho ceases to exer
cise them".
With respect to the inlluenoo f thoso
principles, it is sni.1 by contemporary
writers, that the book of Ilelvetius, who
carried out this philosophy to its rigorous
conclusion of atheism and revolution, was
found on all tables, and that its success
was not surprising, as it told the secret of
every body. For fifty years or in..r this
was the prevailing tone of philosophy in
France, and as its natural progeny, irre
ligion, atheism and an utter disregards!"
life and human rights wore born from it.
Nor was this philosophy less potent in
its relation to the politics of
tenth century. It is found in history
that religions and moral chnnges, are con
nected by some necessary law of sequence
with political revolutions.' The' snmo phi
losophizing that changed the ethical be
lief of France, and' brought religion into
contempt, dealt also' a staggering blow at
the political system of the country. If it
be admittted that men are merely the crea
turcs of sense, and arc mado what they
arc by the objects that surround them, and
if they arc not in as good a condition as
they desire to be, then the remedy is found
in changing the form of government.
Upon just such reasoning as this, the an
cient regime of France was overthrown,
and the philosophy of sensation became
not only the philosophy of immorality,
but of revolution.
Oilier speculative principles, no less
pernicious, wero working in men's minds
at this time, to the statement of which we
111113' return at another time, and which
contributed in their measure to effect the
great social and political changes, that
took place in France at this period, the
effects of which are felt to this day.
It is enough for the purpose wc have in
view to show how, and in what degree
metaphysical speculation has worked in
human society, and to claim for this ap
parcntly nbstrusc study that consideration
and appreciation which it demands from
those who wish to understand the events
of history in their evolution and effects.
A. It. B.
Goodie's Wilhelm Meister.
The one book of the German philosopher
that has created discordant opinions among
men of culture and literary acumen. Wc
take up a Review upon this work, -and
find il criticised most severely for senti
mentality, and lack of cool-headed de
cision in the hero of the incidents. The
first Book pictures to us nothing more
than a love sick youth, whose ontimental
convulsions of expression come to a rea
soning reviewer as if it were the " dog re
turning to his vomit" in being forced to
read it. But we must except from this as
sertion the clean-carved manner the author
had of dealing with the mentalities, if wc
may so express it, of the persons made
known. Still, it is nothing more than
every boy of little more than average abil
ity has experienced. His love for Mari
aim, his puppet-show excitements, and his
dread of business life during these early
days, are common experiences of imagin
ative minds. But wc must, we confess,
allow that tiio great German made the be
ginning fof a more than ordinary intellect,
when he laid the puppet scenes, and men
tal occupation of the poetical youth there
at. The ease with which Wilhelm com
milted volumes of verse, at an early ago
lifted him almost to the height in every
good mind's experience, when ambition
deems fortune a puppet, and boasts that
fate rests with his own finger-ring; that
our way is in we choose to hew. But ho
was ouioklv thrown back upon himself
by his frequent blunders. But he never
commlltcd the same blunder twice. Aiul
just' as he is coining into manhood, -wre.
have a comparison of characters, him
self and his friciuT Werner, that must cior
ry more tl'ian one mind back to college
days; when the Fellows could plainly set
in John, the future diplomatist; in Charles,,
the cool-headed financier, whose debit
were never more than his credits; in an
other, the polished Chesterfield of some
future Washington society. In Werner
wc have the common man of upholstery
culture; the man of trade and comfort
In Wilhelm, an enthusiast in ideas; the
personal exposition of the idea that a
superior thinker, a literary man, can not
possibly be a good mechanic. There hiiTc
becn those in literary lite, whom work
alone seemed to have lifted there; but
there was an undoubted motor to inspire
tho work. I remember in reading a criti
cism of Ilazlitt upon a reviewer and think
er, of his t'ay, to have been struck by the
idca picscnted, that the author criticised
was only mechanically a genius. At the
same time, Mr. Ilazlitt mentioned that the
same gentleman spent one whole day ran
sacking a renowned author's prolific
works, in order to ascertain the exact ori
gin of a sentence quoted nt a dinner-table.
There is a genius that compels such labor.
An ordinary mind could not fly so high as.
to be stirred by a simple sentence.
But even while under the pangs or ic
suspicious love, our hero finds conversa
tion with Werner that leads us to think
him not altogether woman-minded. We,
find him doing the inevitable work of a.
mind growing to maturity, retrospectively
glancing at his beginnings, that lie wonldi
sooner seo in ghost-phantasies than in re
ality. And here he argues with Werner,,
in such a manner that one could think he
were almost entering the portals of an
exchange:. "Because every maa who Is
incompetent to produce the best,, should
wholly abstain from art, and carefully
avoid all its temptations. There exists hi
every man a certain unaccountable desire
to imitate the object which he sees, but
this desire is far from proving that he pos
sesses the capacity for succeeding in what"
ho may undertake;" this is in justifies
lion of his burning all his manuscripts
poems, etc., which would leave many a.
youthful mind stranded on the barrenness--of
unexerted faculties, hnd not Werner'
sensibly objected that " there were many;
idle hours which could be thus profitably;
employed." Then follows an cnergctie
argument by Wilhelm, maintaining, ljkt
every inexperienced mind, that catch
hours in bushiest! intervals aro incompati
ble with poecy. Then we think we see a
little of what is called "literary enthusi
asm," or affectation of what is not' felt,,
when Wilhelm, after a long burst of elo
quence, confidingly confesses that " thesft
fantasies ever pursue me. -
Who could have foretold that the arms T
my spirit with which I had hoped to seize;
something great, and perhaps grasp infim-
ty, woum so soon be shattered?" Here.
you imagine for a moment that 'you sec a.
i
relk'ullon. He
thought
by this inquiry
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