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beforehand, on his judgment. At the same time, one felt that the attack was tentative, not decisive. It was playing at fence with buttoned foils, nay, with only an imaginary opponent. As if doubtful of his argument, Mr. Mill wished his adversary were still living, to strike back in his own defence. This conflict in the field of metaphysics was only an episode among more serious tasks, an occupation for the leisure hours of one whose real business is to instruct the practical mind of England. The challenge was thrown down, as it were, in the mere love of intellectual encounter. Only once the foil is exchanged for a rapier, and the contest becomes vindictively earnest, where he deals with a living antagonist, and bursts out in his famous protest, declaring he would "go to hell" rather than consent to certain inferences of a metaphysical theology. But, on the whole, the review is chiefly valuable as an able exposition of the psychological method which Mr. Mill adopts, as contrasted, point by point, with that of his opponent; and, to one whom his method does not wholly satisfy, there is little damage done to Mr. Mill's great reputation, if his attack is shown to have proceeded from lack of quite understanding the doctrine he controverts.

*

We have read with much interest the defence which Mr. Mansel has volunteered for the system so confidently challenged. In explanation of his title, he begins by quoting Plato's statement of the problem of "the unconditioned;" that is, to ascend, by methods of reasoning, to an absolute First Principle, from which all actual existence may be derived by the process of deduction. The positivist denounces such a problem as both impossible and illegitimate. Sir William Hamilton affirms that its solution is impossible to the human reason, hence his "Philosophy of the Conditioned;" but that the existence of an absolute First Principle is a necessary postulate for our reason, and even more for our faith, since Christianity has rendered it impossible for a theist to think of the Absolute or the Infinite except as identified with God himself. He seeks "a sphere of belief beyond the limits of the sphere of thought." His position is, "that we must believe, as actual, much that we are unable (positively) to conceive as even possible."

The Philosophy of the Conditioned; comprising some Remarks on Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy, and on Mr. J. S. Mill's Examination of that Philosophy. By H. L. MANSEL. (Reprinted, with additions, from The Contemporary Review.) London: Alexander Strahan. pp. 184.

The language in which Hamilton vindicates his position, and particularly that in which he deals with his theories of Perception, Knowledge, and Belief, is often barbarous and harsh. Mr. Mill, generally affecting plain clear English speech, may be excused for a little impatience at the Hamiltonian nomenclature. But it would seem that he has not been as scrupulous to ascertain its meaning as he might. In one case, Mr. Mansel shows that he "actually mistakes the position which Hamilton is opposing for that which he is maintaining" (p. 108). In another case (p. 90), the entire argument is shown to turn on the assumption that "the Absolute" or "the Infinite" is used as a name of God, which is as far as possible from Hamilton's meaning; and again (p. 114), on what we might call an invincible ignorance, that, "what the mathematician calls infinite, the metaphysician calls indefinite." The "real battle-ground," the "diametrical antagonism," of the two systems, is shown (p. 58) to be the controversy between free-will and fatalism; and Mr. Mill is distinctly charged with belonging to "that school of materialism which Sir W. Hamilton denounces as virtual atheism" (p. 57). But Mr. Mansel does not rest his case on opprobrious names. "Mr. Mill," he asserts, "has, throughout his criticism, altogether missed the meaning of theories he is attempting to assail" (p. 63). And this charge is what he undertakes to sustain by abundant citation and argument.

It is very instructive, and to some of us a little consoling, to find men of such eminence still at fault as to the very meaning of the terms they employ in their wordy warfare. One cannot help suspecting that the real ground of argument lies back of the theories of the several schools, and that the antagonists differ quite as much in their motive as in their method. Hamilton seeks a religious foundation for his philosophy, at least one that will justify him in assuming certain maxims of faith- that is, of belief independent of the reason among the first principles of it. He will, apparently, have a method that shall leave unmolested the sectarian creed in which he has been bred. He is, covertly, a theologian, full as much as a philosopher: the theory he vindicates must be in harmony with pious feeling, no less than with the rational understanding; and apparently it can be made to justify a doctrinal system against which common sense and the moral nature enter, alike, a vehement protest. With Mr. Mill, philosophy is a matter of pure science, and the science he adopts is of another school. His style of thought and his

moral sympathies are both enlisted against the current orthodoxy, which Hamilton implicitly defends; and, in assailing the highest contemporary names of English metaphysics, he is doing battle for free thought against a despotic theology which he abhors. Mr. Mansel seems to us not quite candid, in his plausible statement of man's imperfect comprehension of the Divine purpose in creation, when he cites it to rebuke the vehemence of Mr. Mill's protest. At least, he must know that Mr. Mill means in that protest to repudiate a conception of the Divine government, once identified with the very name of Christianity, and full of terror to the ignorant even which no intelligent man dares any longer state in its full atrocity. The controversy interests us even more as a theological than as a metaphysical one. Yet our sympathies in it are divided. For, while human nature itself protests against that monstrous system of mental tyranny and religious terror from which the processes of modern thought are effecting our deliverance, human nature also protests against that drift towards Fatalism a godless or else a divine necessity-which the courses of positive science seem to indicate so strongly.

now,

DR. McCosп's argument, in the same general direction as that we have been reviewing,* differs from it in being more of the nature of a general treatise, and less a vindication of particular opinions. It is "a defence of fundamental Truth," not strictly a defence of Sir William Hamilton, from whose system it expresses free dissent. In style, too, it is less combative and personal. It has a more direct and express acknowledgment of Mr. Mill's services and eminence in kindred lines of thought. The Introduction, in particular, is very winning by its tone of fairness and candor; and in many points its criticism is keen, sagacious, and valuable. Mr. Mill's theory is stated quite explicitly at the outset; viz., "that we can know nothing of mind except that it is a series of sensations aware of itself, or of matter except that it is a possibility of sensations." Probably, Mr. Mill would not complain of this statement, which is given almost in his own words; though his reviewer follows it, almost immediately, by a citation, carefully registered under twenty-four different heads, of arguments, phrases, and positions, in which, from an ample maga

* An Examination of Mr. Mill's Philosophy; Being a Defence of Fundamental Truth. By JAMES MCCOSH. London: McMillan & Co.

zine of first principles, Mr. Mill appears to select at will whatever will suit the purpose of his argument, whatever his theory may say to the contrary. In short, Mr. Mill is convicted of the most honorable fault that can befall a reasoner, an intelligence too broad and rich

to be a consistent materialist, and too masculine to shrink at inconsistency of phrase when he would declare realities of things. In spite of a theological motive apparent here and there, and something of narrow prejudice in dealing with the "positive" school,-as where it speaks of Comte as "a rabid atheist," and an appeal to consequences and tendencies which hardly becomes the single search for truth, the book is a fair, able, and valuable study of the subject it treats it is honestly and seriously religious; and it considerably mitigates the impression produced by the author's ponderous scheme, published fifteen years ago, in which the moral and physical order of the universe were expounded from the point of view of Scotch Presbyterianism./

J. H. A.

MISS CARPENTER's deeply interesting memorial* refreshens recollections that were growing dim by the lapse of a generation. It is just fifty years since the name of Rammohun Roy - then somewhere between thirty and thirty-five years old was becoming known as the zealous defender of the Divine Unity against the superstitions of Hindoo Polytheism. In 1833 he died, near Bristol, England, in a circle of friends to whom he was greatly endeared; leaving a reputation as wide and pure, perhaps, as any Christian thinker of the century. We are greatly indebted to this volume for reviving and revindicating that reputation now. It was prepared by the editor as one of the tasks preparatory to her present visit of charity in India; and at the special request of four young men, natives of that country, who have been pursuing their studies in England, and who propose, on their return, to publish the completest biography possible of their illustrious countryman.

Ever since the age of fifteen, when he made a journey into Thibet for the sake of understanding the religious customs there, Rammohun Roy had been powerfully attracted to the study of religious truth at the fountain-heads of sacred tradition. His father, whose death

*The Last Days in England of the Rajah Rammohun Roy. Edited by Mary Carpenter, of Bristol. London: Trübner & Co. Calcutta: R. C. Lepage & Co. pp. 255.

left him ample wealth and leisure, seems to have favored this strong bent. At an early age, he was already master, not only of the several Hindoo tongues, but of Arabic (which he studied as a living tongue) and Persian; and, from the ancient Sanscrit lore, he had published (in 1816) a compilation of passages to prove, as the primitive faith, his favorite theory of the unity of God. Hebrew and Greek he also learned, in order to study Christianity in its original documents; and, having acquired sufficient knowledge of English, he took a zealous interest in the translation of the Scriptures then in preparation at Calcutta. We believe we are correct in saying, that his discussions and arguments, during this work, had a decisive influence in converting at least one English missionary the learned and eminent William Adam-to Unitarian views of Christianity. The unbiassed testimony of a highly educated Brahmin in favor of a free and undogmatic interpretation of the Testament was reckoned at that time a very important contribution to Unitarian literature. Many of our readers will recollect the volume, republished in this country, containing his compilation of the moral instructions of the gospel, entitled "The Precepts of Jesus, the Guide to Peace and Happiness" (first published in 1820), together with his tracts, or appeals to his countrymen in his own defence. And, with perhaps a little wavering as to the more strictly dogmatic and supernatural elements of faith, he was frank and positive in declaring himself a Christian believer to the end.

But, a Hindoo by birth and a high-caste Brahmin, the object he had most at heart was the good of his own countrymen; and for their sakes, as well as for that of his family, he was solicitous never to forfeit the privileges of his rank and birth. At his death, the thread denoting his caste was found about his body; and at his burial, in a private estate apart from any Christian cemetery, no funeral service was held, nor were any words spoken, lest they should prejudice the jealously guarded birthright. The religious animosity of his countrymen he had braved for years, and even the bitter hostility of his own mother, who (we are informed) once attempted his life by poison. But he would not put any obstacle which could possibly be avoided between his mind and theirs. Accordingly, his influence was early and powerfully felt for good among them. It was one of the strongest agencies in abolishing the suttee,- the burning alive of Hindoo widows; it was used, along with the generous employment of his private wealth, in establishing schools, and otherwise combating native ignorance and superstitions; it is one of the powerful agents now in inspiring the efforts of a younger generation.

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