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Leader (1850-1860), 17th December 1859, Edition 2 of 2, Page 18

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      1374 The Leader. [No. 508. Dec. Ivlgsfo

      1374 THE LEADER . [ No . 508 . Dec . IVlgSfo

      Literature.

      LITERATURE .

      Literary Notes Of The * Week.

      LITERARY NOTES OF THE * WEEK .

      The Sword May Be Said To Have Worn Out I...

      the sword may be said to have worn out its scabbard . Not only the continual exercise of the brain , but the extreme sensibility of his emotional nature , had so taxed and wasted his never athletic physical frame , that the wonder lay rather in his life having been so prolonged . When his often feeble health and always uncertain spirits permitted him in later years to mingle , at rarest intervals , in a small social circle at his own house , or elsewhere , he "was always one of the most cheerful of the party , touching every topic with the lights of his exquisitely delicate fancy , and enjoying , with catholic zest , now the playful prattle of a child , and again the sharp encounter of naaturest wits . His conversation had an inexpressible charm—with all that beauty of language , subtlety of

      proved to be the rounding off of a truly glorious career . , The Essex Gazette says : ¦— " We understand that Mr . Anthony Trollope will succeed Mr . George Neal as post-office surveyor for this district . Mr . Trollope is a son of Mrs . Trollope ; the celebrated writer , and is' himself a talented and popular author . Mr . Josiah Allen , of Birmingham , has in the press a fac-simile edition of the Duke of Devonshire ' s quarto copies of " Hamlet , " of 1603 and . 1604 . The second volume of Mr . Buckle ' s " * History of Civilisation " is stated to be in prepai'ation by Messrs . J . W . Parker and Son . The same publishers announce the third volume of Mr . Massey ' s " History of England during the Reign of George III ., " the fifth and sixth volumes of Mr . Froude ' s " History of England /'

      ' ? SINCE our last publication , intelligence has arrived of the decease of two of the brightest ornaments of modern English literature—Thomas de Quincey and Washington Irving . Of the former a contemporary remarks : — " Almost till the very last his perceptions were as vivid , his interest in knowledge and nflfairs as keen as ever ; and while his bodily frame , wasted by suffering and thought , day by day faded and shrunk , his mind retained unimpaired its characteristic capaciousness , activity , and acuteness . He was full of years—having considerably passed the term of threescore and ten—and in him , if ever in any man ,

      thought , variety of illustration , and quaintness of humour that distinguish his writings . His talk never either became pedantic , or degenerated into soliloquy ot monologue ; it was that of a highly-accomplished scholar and gentleman . A nature so deep and tender dTew towards itself affection as largely as admiration ; and . with profound esteem for the learning , the power , the genius of the writer , will always mingle much of love for the man . It will be long before the literature of England can boast a renewal of such a rare combination of scholarship , of analytic force , of acute reasoning , and courageous speculation , with such imaginative power and deep all-embracing sympathy as this generation has had the privilege of knowing in Thomas de Quincey . "

      Washington Irving , says an American paper , died a few weeks ago at his beautiful residence , " Sunnyside , " at the venerable age of 76 . He was born on the 3 rd of April , 1783 , in New York City . His early studies were in view of the law , but a love of literature was even then predominant , and seemed to be engrafted in his nature as its master passion ; and befpre he was twenty-one he began his career as a-writer . In 1809 he published the well-known " History of New York , by Diedrich Knickerbocker . " Mr . Irving did not choose the profession of law , but in 1810 went into mercantile business with his

      brother ; but the house was not successful , and m 1817 it failed . At the time of its failure Mr . Irving was in Europe , where his reputation was such as to gain for him the friendship of Walter Scott . Here he resolved to make a pursuit of literature the object of his life , and as a result the " Sketqh Book" appeared in 1019 . It was recognised as the product of taste and ' genius ; and even English criticism , until then always scornful of American , books , paid homage to its merits . Other well-known works followed , as in 1822 , " Bracebridge Hall ; " in 1824 , " The Tales of a Traveller j" in 1828 , " The Life of Columbus ;" in 1829 , " The Conquest of Grenada ; " and , in 1831 ,

      " The Alhambra , " Meantime Mr . Irving , in 1829 , 1880 , and 1831 , was Secretary to the American Embassy , and during his residence abroad he had spent much time in Spain , and in various parts of Europe . In 1882 he returned to his native country , after an absence of seventeen years ; and his return was a triumph—so heartily was ho welcomed home by his fellow-countrymen . Mr . Irving continued his literary labours , and the result of a visit made to the Indian tribes was , in 1885 , the elegant V Tour on the Prairies . " Then followed " Abbotsford , and Newfltead Abbey , " " Legends of the Conquest of Spain ; " in 1886 , r < Astoria : " ,

      in 1837 , " The Adventures of Captain Bonneville . " Ilk 1839 he engaged to supply the Knickerbocker Magazine with a monthly article In 1842 Mr . Irving was honoured with the appointment of Minister to Spain , and at the end of his official terra , i | i 1840 , lie returned to this country . la 1848 ho superintended a revised edition of ma works ; in 1849 , published " Oliver Goldsmith ; " and , in 1850 , ?< Mahomet and his Successors "—and then ** Wolfert ' s Rooot . " Irving ' s heart for several years Wftdloeen fixed upon a " Life of Washington / ' and the completion of a graceful narrative , which will over be a monument to hi * industry and patriotism ,

      Co^Titlljutioxs Mental Philosophy. By Im...

      CO ^ TitllJUTIOXS MENTAL PHILOSOPHY . By ImmanuelHermann Fichte . Translated and edited by J . D . Morell , A . M . —Longman , Green , Lonjjman , Roberts . In a metaphysical point of view , the most important publication for many years , this work , corroborated as it is by the judgment and sanction of Mr . Morell , will command and reward the attention of all thinking and intelligent students . The name of Fichte will of itself excite interest . Immanuel Hermann is the only son of Johanu Gottlieb Fichte , the great philosopher of the Ego-istic theory , and was born , we are told , in

      the year 1797 , just at the time when his father was excogitating those startling speculations at Jena , which seem to promise to lay the topstone upon the massive superstructure of the Kantian system . His cradle was rocked in the very room which gave birth to the " Wisscnchaftslehre . " Young Fichte also became an author and philosophist . From his first appearance , lie raised , lie tells us , the banner of Theism , and always held that speculation must go back , to the Kantian

      principles , in order to find a solid foundation . He seems , however , to have made a distinction between the Kantian idea of God , which was , of course , a priori , and our knowledge of God as a real Being , which he declares is by experience , meaning by the word experience to include the moral facts of our . inward being . He became curious , therefore , concerning the . nature of that soul in whose depths these highest problems take their rise . The following biographical memoranda are interesting : — "In my early years , while yet on the threshold or youth , I enjoyed the great happiness of possessing , in both my parents , ( ever the objects of ray highest veneration , ) an example and an" experience which shaped my whole future life . The fact ofd life spent in the world above sense , fraught with high and worldconquering powers , which gave indomitable courage in life , and the highest resignation in death , — all this came before me in the most imposing form , at once inspiring and rousing" to farther contemplation . That picture of a " Life in God , " in which I was allowed to take part , though , as it were , from a distance , has never forsaken me ; it was to rue

      the summit and crown of existence , to Which every earnest mind might attain ; and at the same time the key to the comprehension of my father ' s philosophy , both in its scholastic form and its deeper meaning . In my father ' s " Wissenchaftslehre , "—< in his " Way to a Blind Life , "~^ in the lectures he delivered , in 1812 on Morals , the scientific interpretation of his life itself came before mo with the greatest power . Kant ' s doctrine , also , of the " Homo noumenon , " had an imperishable effect upon me ; since the very soberest of all thinkers there showed that he could not draw himself away from the power of that great fact by which , as ho expresses it , man is placed in the midst of a supersensual order of

      things . My half-philogical ^ studies of Plotinus and the Neo-platonics , brought me now into connexion with Theosophy ; while the love whioli my mother bora to the Christian mystics also introduced mo into this rich world of mental experience . " Thus , then , ; by those involuntary mental influences ( which I cannot value too highly ) , I was from the very first raised , in fact if not in speculation , boyond the more pantheistic idea of God ; as also beyond the natural faith-principle of Jacobi . Tims the fact of a Divine providence was revealed to mo in the actual experiences of life . The task still remained to investigate this faot on philosophical grounds , and to gain from it a complete philosophy of the universe . " Words like these prove we have an earnest thinking soul before uo ; and , even if ho had not beon the eon of the great Fiohte , they would have ensured for their writer the utmost respect . In

      subsequent passages he proceeds to discuss the influence of Jacobi , Fries , Oken , and Hegel ; and the necessity he was under of resorting atliist to Spinoza , as the prime originator of this whole philosophical method . Oken had especially dissatisfied him . His dogmas appeared with acomic tino-c to the mind of the neophyte . Their pre - tensions were empty , yet unmeasured . ' " One might admit a certain appcarunce of logical connexion ia his idea of God , as the zero put of which every . finite existence spring , and into whose abyss it must return ;—and of nature as the eternal producer without beginninrr an ( i end;—yet the ' -whole was but mere senfibl din" an empty form—wherewith to cover the

      insolubility of the problems , for which his more successful views could not compensate . ' But Spinoza did not prove the panacea that he hail expected . To his doctrine of absolute neees ^ ity , which drew everything into a chain of fixed consequences and destroyed all purpose and all freedom , youno-Fichte opposed the grand objection of Leibnitz , — that this doctrine does not at all answer to the real constitution of the world , which constitution bears plainly upon it the stamp of a whole system of means and ends , worked out according to the laws of intelligence and order ; and that it is the notion of a relative , a moral ami an intelligent necessity , which can alone answer to the i ' aets of the case . The following is most important : —

      " But even in Spinoza s doctrine , tiro profound idea of a . n ' amor- bitellectuuUs Dei *—tli'j erojvtringstone of the whole building—appeared to ivi-j to give the lie to his first principles rather than confirm them ; inasmuch as it threatened to pull down , at last , the blank conception of the . impersonality of God , and the unsubstantiality of tin .- humm soul . In this idea , I found those great ethical ami religious facts again making their appearance . ; in 1 that in their purest and happiest ibrni . Live U : i feeling so rich , and which pre-suppose ? such a fulness oi complete , personality , that it bL-comi-. s an unintelligible paradox to-attribute it to an abstract und impersonal substance , or to affirm that tho unsubstantial and finite modejt of the absolute thought ( for the human soul in this system is nothing more ) could possibly be the possessors of such a feeling . " Young Fichte , wearied with the yoke of abstract ideas , sought to solve " the problem of the wo ^ ld and of the soul out of the fulness of nature , and the life of history . " In this he found much assistance in the works of lleinrieh Stellens , who based the right and complete idea of man on qxperience , as an individual being standing within the limits of nature , and yet above nature , finding his individuality not simply in organic dilTerences , but in the intellectual and moral constitution of the soul .

      Such has been the process of thinking , which has brought J . II . Fichto to his provut state of mind ; and which he has stated in several ^ works , and particularly in his " AuUnopulo ^ T . " The work before us ' simply contains Iim convictions in the form of a " Confession ; " a lovm wliich appears to have so won on Mr . MoroH ' s ulU'etimis , that he determined on translating it for the k-ni'lit of the English public . His motives for this course were strong . First , he thinks a scientific confession like tho present is wholesome , as it- delivers the subject from the arena of controversy into the sphere of calm consideration . { Secondly , the fundamental idea of the nature of the soul is , he thinks , in tho confession , stated anew upon its prominentand most decisive grounds .

      , The dualistic princi p le , which regards the soul and tho body as two distinct essences , cauli having its own peculiar attributes , is , Mi . Morell states , now in disfavour . It is , for instance , not satisfactory to the physiologist , whose lu ^ itininte conclusions point to a far more intinmto nnd essential unity . BoaMes , it explains nothing fully . Mr < Morell opines that wu may hoM tlio separate existence of the mind and the body , aiidyot rogaru the former as perfectly pervading tho hater , perhaps , as tho formative principle U ' o may rotfaru the mind , he thinks , na endowed wil . li primoi'Uuu instincts and tendencies , which develop intoiiicuities by the regular process of iirowth in connexion tuo

      with the outer world . , Tliu iininorlulity ot soul may bo proved on sciontiny groiumfi ftna some of these arc dearly iloliuotl in tho brief treatisa before ' us ; bouidoH , thu abnormal p henomena which now exoito so much attention , liuro reooivo no inconsiderable elucidation . Amount tuoflo , Mr . Morell mentions aomo of tho more romarlcaw " forma of dreaming , somnambulism , hiUluoinnwon ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 17, 1859, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_17121859/page/18/