ART. III.-An Epitome of the History of Philosophy, being the Work adopted by the University of France for Instruction in the Colleges and High Schools. Translated from the French, with Additions, and a Continuation of the History from the Time of Reid to the Present Day. By C. S. HENRY, D. D., Professor of Philosophy and History in the University of the City of New-York. 2 vols., 18mo., pp. 587. New-York:

Harper & Brothers. 1842.

It is undeniable that the taste for philosophical studies has been greatly increasing among us for some years past. The indications of this fact are numerous, and continually multiplying. The range of inquiry, too, is wider, its spirit more profound, more independent, more critical. Time was, indeed, when the very term philosophy was a word of ill odor-synonymous, in good men's minds, with materialism, fatalism, atheism, and associated with all the abominations of the French revolution. But it has at length come to be recognized that philosophy should no more be condemned for these things, than chimistry for the quackeries of the alchemists; that the only way to put down false philosophy is to put forward sound philosophy; that it is absurd to seek to avoid the mischievous errors which have resulted from perverse speculation by attempting the impossible task of destroying the spirit of speculation altogether: for, by the necessity of his rational nature, man will never cease to speculate-to ask after the grounds of his convictions. It is begun to be seen how still more absurd is the course so long pursued by theological authority in the high places of public instruction, in marking off a certain domain of licensed philosophy, hedging it round with the Westminster Catechism to prevent all outbreaks of vagrant speculation, and yet, at the same time, installing, as master within that domain, the very father of French materialism and atheism, with Edwards on the Will as the special drawbridge to span the chasm between fatalism and accountability, to solve the contradiction between the allowed system and the dictates of conscience.

All this is good progress; for philosophy of some kind we must have, and it is high time that its true position and just claims were understood. It is a science of facts; facts that can neither be made, unmade, nor altered this way or that way, by any arbitrary assertion, denial, or mutilation; facts, therefore, which, as in every other science of facts, claim to be impartially observed apart from any foreign interest, to be accurately described and fairly reasoned from.

It is, moreover, the universal science-scientia universalis; because its fundamental principles are recognized by every human being, and because its facts are the universal principles of knowledge and truth for man. Every other human science derives from this science its foundations-its grounding principles. The facts of philosophy-the fundamental laws of human thought and belief -furnish the principles which are implied and proceeded upon in the construction of every special science. Not only so, but the whole life and activity of humanity, with all its infinitely diversified phenomena, is but the perpetual evolution of those fundamental laws of the human mind which it is the province of philosophy to recognize and describe, put in clear light, and arrange in their complete whole.

Now it may be thought that, as philosophy is a science of observation, the leading principles of which are to be found in every one's own mind, the study of its history can be only a matter of curious interest, of little importance in enabling one to come to satisfactory conclusions; and even that the ten thousand different opinions comprised in this history must rather serve to perplex than to aid the inquirer. Such a notion would, however, be as superficial and unsound in regard to the history of philosophy as in regard to the history of any other science. Impartial history is always a light, always a guide; and in nothing more so than in the history of human opinions concerning the great questions of philosophy. There are only a certain number of great problems which the human mind can propose to itself for solution; and there are only a certain number of possible solutions which those problems can receive. The history of philosophy shows this: all philosophical speculations for three thousand years are only attempts to solve a few problems, the same in every age; and all the systems that have existed in every philosophical period are only the recurrence of the same determinate number of solutions, differing in phrase and form, and in the different relative prominence given to them in their respective systematic connections, but ever at bottom substantially the same.

Surveying thus comprehensively, under the guidance of the impartial historian, the progress of human opinions, observing in every period, notwithstanding all differences of form, the same great questions coming up, and the same circle of answers continually recurring, the inquirer is put in the most advantageous position possible for forming his own conclusions. He sees why and how it is that so many and such contradictory answers have been given to the same few great questions. He sees the true

nature and real relations of the innumerable systems, and how they all fall within a very few general systems. He sees that the number of contradictory and incompatible systems is far less than at first appeared, and the decision upon their claims becomes comparatively easy. He learns the invaluable lesson of discerning between the substance and the form of things, of distinguishing the great question from the false or insufficient answer it may have received. He perceives that the same ideas, the same truths which he is accustomed to express in the forms of his own age, are to be found in almost every age in different forms of expression; and thus he is cured for ever of one of the most fool-born traits of the ignorant and shallow-that of despising the unfamiliar as necessarily the untrue or ridiculous.

We hold, therefore, that if the study of philosophy be made a part of every course of education, (as it certainly should be, and as the practice of all higher institutions admits,) the study of its history should ever be united with it. Hitherto, however, we have had not only no comprehensive work to put into the hands of the student, but absolutely none at all. The old work of Stanley is entirely out of question-a huge folio, yet covering less than half the ground. The more recent abridgment of Brucker, by Enfield, is equally useless for purposes of instruction-being too bulky, and, at the same time, extremely defective. A very poor translation of Tenneman's History of Philosophy has been published in England: but even if the translation were a good one, the original work is chiefly valuable to the advanced scholar for its literature, (as the Germans call it,) or references to the sources of history; while for the purposes of elementary instruction it would be of little use, from its want of positive details, and from the influence of the peculiar system under which it was written.

In the Epitome of the History of Philosophy presented to us by Dr. Henry, we have a good book where, properly speaking, we had nothing before. It supplies a real and great want, which has hitherto been altogether unsupplied; and it supplies it well. It is an excellent contribution to a most important department in the course of public instruction. Besides being adapted to academical use, and the only work in the language that is at all adapted to this use, it has also the merit of being, at the same time, a better, more complete, and trustworthy book of reference for the general scholar, than any other which can be named.

It is comprehensive-embracing a complete survey of philosophy from the earliest times to the present day. It divides the history of philosophy into five periods: the oriental philosophy, the Greek,

the first centuries of the Christian era, the middle ages, modern philosophy.

It is judicious. It is not-like too many, we may say most histories of philosophy-a series of disquisitions upon the systems that have prevailed, leaving the knowledge of the systems themselves to be supplied by the reader's previous study, or else vaguely inferred from the disquisitions; but it is full of positive expositions; it tells us precisely what the systems were. On the other hand, it is not a mere undiscriminating assemblage of all facts, all opinions, the significant and insignificant alike, partial and isolated conceptions, as well as true philosophical systems. It follows the course and history of philosophical theories in the proper sense of the term― conceptions which present a class of systematic ideas on the general questions, the determination of which decides the place and character of particular views. While, therefore, it presents to the student a great mass of positive notions, yet they all serve to show the general progress of philosophy in its different periods, and the logical connection of the various systems.

The plan is well adapted to an elementary work. The exposition of every system is preceded by such brief biographical and historical notices as are indispensable; then follows the summary of the system; then critical observations upon the system analyzed.

In analyzing every system, more care is had to bring out its fundamental characteristics and its chief systematic results, than to follow it into all the variety of its minute developments. The expositions are in general characterized by remarkable clearness; and, taken in connection with the observations, enable the student to get a more accurate and distinct view of the great systems of every epoch and their logical relations, than any work to which he can be referred.

Finally, the spirit of the work is admirable. It well exemplifies the remark of one of the most celebrated living philosophers : "That the true muse of the historian of philosophy is not hatred, but love." What we mean is, that there are in this work no traces of prejudice, party spirit, bitterness; no displays of the odium theologicum, nor "odium" of any kind. It is written with the greatest calmness, candor, and impartiality. Not that the writers of this work manifest any real or affected indifference, whether skeptical or contemptuous, for the truths at issue between the various conflicting systems which they analyze. They make no studied pretension of having no opinions of their own, nor caring to have: on the contrary, their personal opinions are by no means hard to be perceived.

Such are the general characteristics of this book. To the original work, as published by the directors of the college of Juilly, Dr. Henry has contributed important additions, forming nearly one-third of these volumes. The original work ended with the eighteenth century-with Reid, in England; Kant, in Germany; and Condillac, Helvetius, &c., in France. Professor Henry has brought down the history from that period to the present time in all those countries-presenting in a brief compass the results of an examination vastly extensive and laborious. He has, besides, made some important insertions into the body of the original work, particularly the period of English philosophy between Locke and Reid. These additions are made on the same plan as the original, and they render the work more comprehensive. We think he deserves the warmest thanks of all students of philosophy, and of public instructors, for the care he has bestowed in preparing this work, and especially his sketch of the history of philosophy in the nineteenth century-a task which but few persons in the country could well have undertaken, and perhaps none have better accomplished. It is a good work-a work of far higher intrinsic character and rank than it puts itself forward to be. It is not a book for the mere tyro: it is one that should be among the books of every intelligent reading man, as well as one that should be introduced into all our institutions for higher education. As a book for colleges and schools it demands, indeed, that faithful and earnest teaching on the part of the instructor should be combined with the study of it on the part of the scholar. This is the case with all elementary books that are of any worth; and where these two conditions are combined, the use of this work will, we are confident, be a rich source of instruction and mental discipline.

We add, in conclusion, one thing more, which, in our opinion, constitutes an eminent merit of this work. It puts, in a strong light, the important truth that there can be no real contradiction between philosophy and revelation. No one can attentively read it without arriving at the salutary conviction that all philosophical theories which contradict the fundamental truths of revealed religion, may be clearly shown to be either false or purely hypothetical; while philosophy itself furnishes the means of negatively vindicating every great truth of religion-that is, of nullifying every objection made on speculative grounds. The careful student of this work will not fail to be strongly impressed with this; and will thus learn a lesson of great and inestimable value, both in itself and as establishing the true position and just claims of philosophy. New-York, April, 1842.