Outlines of Universal History, Designed as a Text-book and for Private Reading

by George Park Fisher

SCOTTISH PHILOSOPHY.—The most distinguished expounder of the Scottish philosophy, and the most learned of that whole school, was Sir William Hamilton (1788-1856). He maintained the doctrine of natural realism,—that we have a direct, "face to face" perception of external things. He held that the range of the mind's power of conceptive thought lies between two inconceivables, one of which must be real. Thus we can not conceive of free-will (which would be a new beginning), nor can we conceive of an endless series of causes. Free-will—and the same is true of the fundamental truths of religion—is verified to us as real by our moral nature. A Scottish writer of ability, who, however, opposed the peculiar tenets of the Scottish school, was Ferrier (1808-1864). Among the other philosophical writers of Scotland, affiliated, but with different degrees of dissent, with the school of Reid and Hamilton, are Professors Fraser and Calderwood, and the late James McCosh.

PHILOSOPHY IN ENGLAND.—More allied to the philosophy of Hume and of Comte are the metaphysical theories of John Stuart Mill (1806-1873). Intuitions were regarded by Mill as the impression produced by a frequent conjunction of like experiences, and thus to be the product of sensation. Causation was resolved into the invariable association of phenomena, by which an expectation is created that seems instinctive. Another writer of the same general tendency, who seeks for the explanation of knowledge in the materials furnished by the senses, is Alexander Bain, a Scottish author, versed in physiology. Herbert Spencer constructed a general system of philosophy on the basis of the theory of evolution. He holds that our knowledge is limited to phenomena, which are the manifestation in our consciousness of things which in themselves are unknown; and that behind and below all is "the Unknowable,"—an inscrutable force, out of which the universe of matter and mind is developed, and which gives to it unity and coherence.

PHILOSOPHY IN GERMANY.—In Germany the decline of the school of Hegel was succeeded by a sort of anarchy in philosophy. Herbart (1776-1841), a contemporary of Hegel, framed a system antagonistic to Hegelian idealism. Among numerous metaphysical authors, each of whom has a "standpoint" of his own, are the justly distinguished names of Fichte (the younger), Ulrici, Trendelenburg, and Hermann Lotze. Lotze. in his Microcosm, has unfolded, in a style attractive to the general reader, profound and genial views of man, nature, and religion. A remarkable phenomenon in German speculation is "pessimism,"—the doctrine gravely propounded in the systems of Schopenhauer and E. Von Hartmann, that the world is radically and essentially evil, and personal existence a curse from which the refuge is in the hope of annihilation. In its view of the world as springing from an unconscious force, and of the extinction of consciousness as the state of bliss, as well as in its notions of evil as inwrought in the essence of things, this philosophy is a revival of Indian Oriental speculation. Historical and critical writings in the department of philosophy abound in Germany. The histories of philosophy by Ritter, Erdmann, Zeller, Kuno Fischer, and Lange, are works of remarkable merit.

PHILOSOPHY IN ITALY.—Among the Italian metaphysicians, the two writers who are most noteworthy are Rosmini (1797-1855), who taught idealism; and Gioberti (1801-1882), whose system is on a different basis,—a gifted writer who was equally conspicuous as a statesman and a philosopher.

PHILOSOPHY IN THE UNITED STATES.—Philosophy in America has been zealously cultivated, both in connection with theology and apart from it, by a considerable number of teachers and writers. Among them are James Marsh, C. S. Henry, Francis Wayland, L. P. Hickok, H. B. Smith, and other eminent authors, mostly of a more recent date.

POLITICAL ECONOMY.—Ricardo (1772-1823), who followed Adam Smith (p. 492), dealt more in abstractions and processes of logic, than his predecessor. The writings of Ricardo, together with the discussions of Malthus (1766-1834) on population,—in which it was maintained that the tendency to an increase of population outstrips the increase of the means of subsistence,—led to numerous other writings.

Political economy was handled in productions by James Mill (1821), J. R. McCulloch, N. W. Senior (1790-1864), R. Torrens (1780-1864), Harriet Martineau (1802-1876), Thomas Chalmers, the celebrated Scottish divine, Archbishop Richard Whately, Richard Jones (1790-1855), a critic of the system of Ricardo, and others. An eminent writer, an expositor with important modifications of the Ricardian teaching, is John Stuart Mill (1806-1873). Fawcett and other able authors have followed for the most part in Mill's path. An English author of distinction in this field is J. E. Cairnes (1824-1875). The French school of economists have adhered to the principles of Adam Smith much more than have the Germans. Among the most noted of the French authors in this field are Say (1767-1832), whose views are founded on those of Smith; Sismondi (1773-1842), who, however, departs from the English doctrine, and favors the intervention of government to "regulate the progress of wealth"; Dunoyer (1786-1862); Bastiat (1801-1850), one of the most brilliant advocates of free-trade; Cournot (1801-1877), who applies, with much acumen, mathematics to economical questions. In America, since the days of Franklin and Hamilton, both of whom wrote instructively on these topics, a number of writers of ability have appeared. Among them are H. C. Carey, who opposes the views of Ricardo and Malthus, and defends the theory of protection; Francis Bowen, also a protectionist; F. A. Walker, Perry, etc. In Italy, there have not been wanting productions of marked acuteness in this department. Of the numerous German writers, one of the most eminent is List (1798-1846), a critic of Adam Smith, and not an adherent of the unqualified doctrine of free-trade. In the list of later English writers, the names of Bagehot, Leslie, Jevons, and Sidgwick are quite prominent. With regard to free-trade and protection, the latter doctrine has been maintained in two forms. Some have regarded protection as the best permanent policy for a nation to adopt. Others have defended it as a provisional policy, to shield manufactures in their infancy, until they grow strong enough to compete, without help, with foreign products. After the repeal of the corn-laws in England (1846), the free-trade doctrine prevailed in England. Since Comte published his exposition of Sociology (1839), the tendency has arisen to consider political economy as one branch of this broader theme. With it the controversies pertaining to socialism are intimately connected.

The disciples of Adam Smith have contended for the non-intervention of governments in the industrial pursuits of the people. They are to be left to the natural desire of wealth, and the natural exercise of competition in the pursuit of it. The prevalent theories of socialism are directly hostile to this—called the laissez-faire—principle. Socialists would make government the all-regulative agent, the owner of land and of the implements of labor.

ENGLISH ESSAYISTS.—In literature the later time has seen an extraordinary multiplying of periodicals and newspapers, among whose editors and contributors have been included numerous writers of much celebrity. In Great Britain, several famous authors first acquired distinction mainly by historical and critical articles in reviews. This is true of Thomas Babington Macaulay and Thomas Carlyle. Each of them became a historian. Macaulay, an ardent Whig, with an astonishing familiarity with political and literary facts, wrote in a spirited and brilliant style a History of England from the Accession of James II. to the death of his hero, William III. Carlyle, with a unique force of imagination and a rugged intensity of feeling, original in his thought, yet strongly affected by German literature, especially by Richter and Goethe, wrote in his earlier days a Life of Schiller. He wrote later a history of the French Revolution, in which the scenes of that tragic epoch are depicted with dramatic vividness; and a copious History of Frederick the Great. Among the most characteristic of his writings are his Heroes and Hero-Worship; the "Latter-Day Pamphlets," in which is poured out his contempt of democracy; and the Life of John Sterling,—the counterpart of a biography of Sterling, written in a different vein by a learned and scholarly divine, Julius Hare.

Of essayists in a lighter, discursive vein, one of the most popular, who has already been referred to (p. 544), was the Scottish writer, John Wilson (1785-1854), the author of numerous tales and criticisms, and of diverting papers written under the name of "Christopher North." Without the fancy and humor of Wilson, yet master of a style keeping within the limits of prose while verging on poetry, was Thomas De Quincey, the author of The Confessions of an Opium Eater, Essays on the Roman Emperors, etc.