Coleridge and Southey. Coleridge was then a Socinian and Republican, and proclaimed his opinions in his "Juvenile Poems," and a drama on the "Fall of Robespierre." Southey about the same time became a Jacobin and Socinian, abruptly terminated his university career, and wrote his poem of "Wat Tyler." At the same period, Coleridge, Southey, and Lloyd actually resolved to found a "Pantisocracy" on the banks of the Susquehanna, in the wilds of the New World. While Coleridge lived at Stowey, Wordsworth lived but two miles off, at Allfoxden, and shared the feelings of the three young poets, who were eager to found a new state of society, in which there should be neither priest nor king. It would hardly be a work of love to show how the ardent young republicans could afterwards join themselves to the conservative party of Eng-read in this order, to give them full effect. land. Carlyle's wise Yankee friend says, that conservatism is only radicalism gone to seed. The young poet Wordsworth could write as follows in regard to freedom :"Oh give, great God, to freedom's waves to ride Sublime o'er conquest, avarice, and pride; To sweep where pleasure decks her guilty bowers, And dark oppression builds her thick ribbed tow

to growl, but while growling showed a look of admiration. "The White Doe of Rylstone;" "Sonnets on the River Duddon ;" "The Wagoner;" "Peter Bell;" "Ecclesiastical Sketches;" "Yarrow Revisited," and some others, were the subsequent works of the poet. The poems have been arranged according to subjects as follows: "Poems referring to the Period of Childhood;"" Juvenile Pieces;""Poems founded on the Affections;" "Poems of the Fancy;" "Poems of the Imagination;" various sonnets, memorials of tours on the Continent and in Scotland, and ecclesiastical poems; "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection ;" "Evening Voluntaries;" "Poems referring to the Period of Old Age;" "Epitaphs and Elegiac Poems," and "The Excursion." It was a fancy of the poet that his works should be

ers;

-

Give them, beneath their breast, while gladness
springs,

To brood the nation o'er with Nile-like wings;
And grant that every sceptred child of clay,
Who cries, presumptuous, Here their tides shall
stay!'

Swept in their anger from the affrighted shore,
May with his creatures sink to rise no more!"

Unlike most of his brother poets, he never shivered in the wintry wind of poverty. In 1814 he obtained, through the patronage of the noble family of Lowther, the office of Distributer of Stamps, a situation at once lucrative and demanding but little time. Already a gentleman (referred to above) in the neighborhood had left him a large legacy, which was followed by other bequests. In 1842, when he resigned his situation to his son, he received a pension of three hundred pounds from Government; and was the next year, at the death of Southey, appointed Poet Laureate. It would be wrong, perhaps, to inquire whether his good fortune in this respect had any thing to do with his con

patronage" of Messrs. Wedgwood was not without a certain influence with one great poet. We sometimes search for recondite causes, and omit those that are obvious. Youth is always radical, age conservative. Change of fortune sometimes rouses into activity new feelings, and thus produces change of opinion and action. Continuation of fortune, good or ill, confirms opposite tendencies of the mind. The heart, however, refuses any thing but love for the one who has exhibited

In 1798, Wordsworth and Coleridge pub-servatism. The "generous and magnificent lished a collection of "Lyrical Ballads," as an experiment in a new style of poetry. Most of them were from the pen of Wordsworth, and his object was to make common things and common language poetic. In the judgment of the public, the " Idiot Boy" was a poor substitute for the "Triumphs of Temper" and the "Rape of the Lock." The poems were ridiculed and read, but the poet had no inclination to conciliate the public. The "Lyrical Ballads" were followed in 1807 by two more volumes, in which were exhibited powers of description and feeling that could not be denied. His name, in spite of his theory, began to be associated with those of Cowper and Goldsmith, on account of his real merit. In 1814 appeared his poem of "The Excursion," his great work. readers became numerous. Jeffrey continued

His

-"those first affections,
Those shadowy recollections,
Which, be they what they may,
Are yet the fountain light of all our day,
Are yet a master light of all our seeing;
Uphold us, cherish, and have power to make
Our noisy years seem moments in the being
Of the eternal silence."
O. W. W.

SPECULATIVE PHILOSOPHY

IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.*

as if it was ascertained beyond a doubt that the questions it proposes to answer were exploded problems, or matters that have no connection with the common affairs of life.

FROM a period not long after the publica- | almost as much thrust into the background tion of Locke's Essay on the Understanding, till near the close of the last century, metaphysics was a favorite science in England. Many of its most distinguished men won their reputation in this field of knowledge. For nearly a hundred years, a large portion of the literary talent of the country was absorbed in investigating the nature and laws of the mind, and in settling the controversies which grew out of these subjects. In these abstruse pursuits and questions, most of the cultivated part of society was deeply interested. Nor were the objects sought to be accomplished, and the problems to be solved, regarded as matters of curiosity only, or of no practical utility. On the contrary, they were thought to have the most intimate connection with the foundations of government, morals, religion, and all the great interests of life. The attention which was thus for many years bestowed on metaphysical pursuits in England, was suddenly arrested near the end of the last century by a variety of causes, but principally by the allabsorbing interest which the French Revolution awakened among all classes of society. This portentous event, threatening to change the political face of Europe, and produce a new order of things in all the surrounding countries, was too exciting to permit much interest to be taken in recondite speculations and abstruse questions. From this period, the cultivation of metaphysical science rapidly declined in England, till this once favorite literary pursuit became so much neglected that it seemed to have lost all attraction in the land of Locke, Berkeley, Reid, and Hume. Since the death of Dr. Brown, in 1820, no great name or work of remarkable ability has appeared in this department. Every other species of knowledge has been diligently cultivated, while this prima philosophia, this "science of sciences," has been

The publication, however, of the work to which the attention of our readers is invited in the present article, has shown that the former spirit of metaphysical inquiry is fast reviving in England. Contrary to antecedent probability, and the author's own expectations, the first edition was rapidly exhausted, and a second one called for. The work has also been published in our own country, and meets with a favorable reception from the reading public; yet it is somewhat singular, considering its popularity, that it has received so little attention from the press. Usually, when a work of this description makes its appearance, it creates a great sensation in the literary world. It is arraigned at every tribunal of literary criticism, from the quarterlies to the daily journals. After having been reviewed, criticised, praised or blamed, till the public are tired of hearing of it, it is permitted to proceed quietly to the accomplishment of its final destiny. But this book, although very popular with the readers of such works, and universally allowed to exhibit uncommon ability, has received but very little attention from the press in any form. We do not recollect to have read but two criticisms upon it in the English periodicals: one of them, in the North British Review, was written by Dr. Chalmers. In the periodicals of our own country we do not recollect to have seen but one extended notice of it; yet if it has been strangely neglected by the press, it has not been by the reading public. It has been extensively read and admired, both in England and this country. The popularity which it has obtained is amply merited by the character of its contents.

In every

*Historical and Critical View of the Speculative Philosophy of Europe in the Nineteenth Century. By J. D. MORELL, A.M. New-York: Carter, 285 Broadway.

1

respect, it is one of the best works that have | acter of the age. From the many abortive been published for many years. Among attempts which have been made to supply the claims which it has to this high rank, this desideratum, we had nearly arrived at every candid and intelligent reader will the conclusion that it was in vain to expect recognize it. Morell, however, has amply gratified our wishes in this respect. He has succeeded

that deserves high praise. He has furnished as clear and easily understood an exposition of the metaphysical speculations of Kant, Schelling, Fichte, and Hegel, as Stewart has of those of Locke, Berkeley, Reid and Hume. We find, with Morell for our guide, but little or no difficulty in comprehending German transcendentalism, and following its attempts to explore those dim, obscure regions of thought which the sober, common sense metaphysicians of England regard as utterly inaccessible to the human mind. He has been successful in this enterprise,

In the first place, the beauty, clearness, and simplicity of its style. Since the estab-in his efforts to effect this object in a manner lishment of the Scotch school of metaphysics, most of the works which have appeared on this subject have aimed to be not merely dry scientific treatises, but productions written with elegance and beauty, and possessing great literary attractions. In endeavoring to accomplish this object, however, they have frequently gone to excess. The authors have overlaid their thoughts with too much rhetorical embellishment and poetical coloring. Their style may be pleasant to read, and possess many literary excellences; but from its want of precision and definiteness, it is but poorly adapted for scientific pur-where so many before him have failed, prinposes. This is particularly the case with Dr. Brown, whose lectures, regarded as a scientific treatise, are greatly injured by those defects. From such faults Morell is entirely, or to an unusual extent, free. In reading his work we meet with few or none of those flowers of rhetoric which are so profusely scattered over the pages of some metaphysi-cuted his task with equal, if not superior cal writings that have appeared within the present century. While his style is one of uncommon elegance, beauty, and force, at the same time there is a remarkable clearness and simplicity running through all his sentences. We follow the transparent stream of his profound and often original thoughts with the same ease and pleasure as we read one of Jeffrey's reviews, Irving's sketches, or Macaulay's essays.

In the next place, the author has succeeded in furnishing the most lucid exposition of the various metaphysical systems that have prevailed in modern times. Particularly is this the case with regard to his presentation of the theories of the German writers. We have read many attempted expositions of their metaphysics, but have never before succeeded in gaining any very clear idea of them. Our conceptions of German transcendentalism were so vague and unsatisfactory, after reading the books designed to expound it which have fallen in our way, that we had almost despaired of seeing a lucid account of those systems of speculative philosophy which are beginning to have such a decided influence on the intellectual char

cipally by the new method he has adopted. Instead of translating the strange, uncouth terminology of the German writers into English, he has reproduced their ideas clothed in his own clear and simple style. He has performed for them the same office that Dumont did for Jeremy Bentham, and exe

ability. The consequence is, that most of the difficulties complained of in reading the German metaphysicians entirely disappear as their views are unfolded in his lucid pages.

In addition to these merits, the author shows an intimate and profound acquaintance with his subject. He seems to have thoroughly explored the whole field of modern metaphysical lore. He seems to have read accurately and attentively all that has been written on the science whose history he records, from its commencement with Descartes down to the latest publications in his own and foreign lands. The plan which he adopted in acquiring the materials of his work was admirably adapted to put him in possession of a thorough knowledge of the various systems of mental philosophy prevalent in the several countries of Europe. He tells us that after having become deeply interested in metaphysical pursuits while residing in London, he repaired successively to Scotland, Germany, and France, and read the most celebrated works in philosophy, and heard the most distinguished professors in their lecture-rooms expound the subject to their students in each of these countries.

After he had completed his studies and ma- metaphysical science, Morell, in every point tured his views, he published the work under of view, deserves to be placed on an equality. consideration, as a guide to others who might In profound and extensive philosophical be inclined to follow over the same wide and knowledge, in brilliancy, force, and beauty devious track of thought which he had been of style, in soundness of judgment and employed in traversing for many years. clearness of exposition, he is in no respect The result of his labors is a book replete behind the French eclectic, or the popular with more various and interesting metaphy- Scotch professor. Those who have never sical learning than any other in our lan- read the work under consideration, but have guage. formed their judgment of Morell from his "Philosophy of Religion," can have no just idea of his merits. The latter production gives no correct notion of his talents. It is to a great extent a failure, and has very much disappointed the expectations of his admirers. It shows that it was either hastily written, and published before the author had matured his views and fully mastered his subject, or that his talents lie rather in the art of clearly expounding the systems of other philosophers than in the power to construct one of his own.

Among the merits of the work also must be mentioned its candor and justice. Although the author has had occasion to criticise and expound the opinions of a multitude of writers whose views are diametrically opposite to his own, yet he has performed his task with unusual fairness and liberality. Decided and firm in maintaining his own opinions, he is nevertheless remarkably free from a harsh, censorious spirit towards those who differ from him. His opponents must acknowledge that he has generally given a fair, full exposition of the Having mentioned the literary merits of the philosophical systems they embrace, and done work, we proceed next to the consideration of justice to the characters of the writers whom its contents. The object of the author is to they regard as their leaders in metaphysical present "an historical and critical view of science. An illustration of this remark is the speculative philosophy of Europe in the furnished in his treatment of Locke. He nineteenth century." In carrying out his utterly repudiates his theory respecting the plan, however, he has not confined his attenorigin of our knowledge, being himself an tion merely to the metaphysical theories that idealist, and partial to the views of Cousin have been prevalent for the last fifty years. and the German philosophers. Yet he He has gone back to the time of Bacon and never speaks of this profound and clear- Descartes, and presented an outline of intelheaded thinker in that contemptuous and lectual science down to the close of the last depreciatory tone which most transcendent- century. This portion of the work occupies alists employ whenever they have occasion about one third of its contents, and is deto mention the name of Locke. On the signed to prepare the way for a proper apcontrary, whenever he refers to this great phi-preciation of the various metaphysical syslosopher, whose reputation till recently was equal to that of Bacon and Newton, he uses such language as every one must adopt who reveres the combination of great virtues with extraordinary talents, and admires a life spent in advancing the interests of religion and the welfare of mankind.

Such are the general merits of the work in which Morell has furnished a rich intellectual repast to all who are interested in metaphysical investigations. From its character and the object it has in view, it naturally suggests a comparison with the productions of two other writers, who have also won a high reputation in the same line of literary pursuits, Cousin and Dugald Stewart. With both of these authors, regarded as historians and expounders of modern

tems of our own age. The remainder is devoted to the history and criticism of speculative philosophy during the present century, and is a full, copious, and satisfactory account of all that has been written on this subject in the several countries of Europe since 1800. In the arrangement of his work the author has adopted a plan devised by Cousin, which greatly assists him in effecting the object he has in view, and which gives unity to each of the various conflicting and apparently isolated systems in mental philosophy which for the last two centuries have followed each other in such rapid succession. By the plan he has employed, order is diffused through the vast chaos in which intellectual science presents itself to our observation when we consider the endless